Trees for a Change

A friend sent me a cool gift idea. Her friend started a company to replenish the number of trees that have been devastated by wildfires. Here is a link if you can't think of that special gift for your loved one: http://www.treesforachange.com/index.html

• Trees for a Change gift trees are planted in U.S. National Forests to replace trees destroyed by wildfire, disease or insects.
• Since 2004, the U.S. has seen an extreme number of wildfires, leaving record numbers of acres devastated.
• The Forest Service has recently identified over one million acres of National Forest land that is in desperate need of reforestation.
• Our trees are planted and cared for by Forest Service tree experts who specialize in reforestation. They choose which National Forests can benefit the most from our program.
• Planting only tree species that are native to the surrounding area optimizes growing conditions and ensures that each tree has a healthy beginning.
• Your tree gift will grow to restore habitat and food for wildlife, provide clean air, prevent soil erosion and add beauty to our National Forests for many future generations.
• Trees are the earth's longest-living organisms. The average tree in one year is able to absorb ten pounds of pollutants from the air and convert 330 pounds of carbon dioxide into oxygen.
• Trees for a Change Tree Gifts are a wonderful and generous way to celebrate or memorialize someone special. A tree planted right now will benefit all the inhabitants of our planet for years and years to come. One Tree Gift really can change the world!

I could definitely see the value in this and would LOVE IT if you got me one. :)

Trained

I’m as trained as I’m going be for my first 50 miler in 3 weeks. Yesterday, I met Nick up at Mohican for 30+ miles of hardcore hills (my longest training run ever). We met at 7am with no cars in the parking lot but ours, and off we went. Be sure to read Nick’s story about his experiences with the Mohican hippie’s. :)

We started on the Red / Green loop very slow and kept a nice steady pace up the hills. I’ve done part of the Red loop before and part of the Green loop before, but have never ran either loop the full distance. The Red loop is 8 miles and the Green loop is 13 miles. I’d heard rumors that the Green loop is the meanest of all the trails at Mohican. I was destined to find out just what that meant today.

What started off to be a very chilly morning, turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day; perfect for running in the woods. I’d told Jennifer that I was going to be running most all day today, so there was no hurry to get back home like I usually do. The Red loop was pretty easy for the most part. My legs were still pretty fresh and my water and fuel intake was going well. By around 9:30 we had hit Rock Point and we started on the Green loop. Immediately I was loving it because this was all going to be “new trails” for me, and I love that!

I really enjoyed these loops. There were a total of (I think) 3 river crossings and the river was cooold each time we crossed. At one point, I had water up past the knee caps and it felt good to give the calves a nice ice soaking as I made my way across. I also got to see how big that darn hill is on the Green loop and… man! It was a big one. Apparently the 100 mile runners will have to make that climb twice; ouch.

Around 12:30, we got back to the covered bridge. 21 miles were in the bag and we just had another 10 or so to go before calling it a day. Both Nick and I had empty stomachs and were drained of energy. Therefore, we hoped in the Jeep and headed up to McDonalds for some gorging. On our way back, Nick drove me through the road sections of the 50 mile course and I couldn’t believe how much road we’ll be running on; ~20 miles. It helped to see the road sections, because I decided to bring my old Cascadia 3’s for the road sections since they are on some pretty rocky roads. I’m going to set a drop bag at the first aid station inside the forest and switch to my ASICS trail shoes. I’m going to set another drop bag at the aid station outside of the forest for my 10 mile road trek back to the finish line with fresh socks.

After we got back from McDonalds, we headed up the Orange loop (one of my favorites). Instead of doing the full 15, we did a 10 mile version of it to get in 31 miles. I finished the day around 4:30 and headed home for some yummy burgers on the grill that Jennifer had cooked. My legs were pretty sore the rest of the evening, which means that the run was a great training run. I gorged at the dinner table, chugged two huge glasses of rich chocolaty milk and then chilled on the recliner the rest of the night with Daizi while Jen ran to town for the evening.

Running the Trails at Salt Fork State Park

Yesterday I met up with my running buddy, Kim at Salt Fork State Park for a trail run. We had a blast and only got turned around once. The agenda was to go out and do 18 miles then come home and relax. The day didn't quite unfold that way though. We ended the run with a nice, slow paced 14 miler and great trail fun instead. Kim posted an entry about the run as well, so be sure to check it out.

I left the house at 6:15 am to meet up with Kim by 7am. As it turned out, the 40+ mile drive turned out to be a little over an hour and I was fashionably late. I made sure everything was ready by the time I got there (watch on, gel packs in pockets, sweat rag, etc..). That way I could just hop out and take off when the car was parked. As it turned out, Kim didn’t care, she was still getting ready anyway.

It was pretty windy and a little chilly starting off, but once we got moving it was absolutely perfect weather for running. About 1 mile into the trail, Kim stated that she left her Garmin on the car. She is so laid back; I would have spazzed out and sprinted back to the car in fear that someone would have taken it. She impressed me with her “eh… so what” attitude. :) She set it on her hood to let the GPS sync with the satellites and then when we took off, she forgot it. Luckily we had my Garmin so we could keep track of our mileage and time.

The first section was all bridle trails and there was a lot of mud. The feet got wet immediately and it was a lot of slow stepping through this section. It was a great way to start a long run (slow and muddy). Love it! After the bridle trails we made our way to the hiking trails. The ground was a bit more firm through here and it was mostly running through the woods.

Salt Fork trails are absolutely beautiful. We ran through some nice hilly areas and it was picture perfect scenery every way we looked. The best part was when we ran beside the lake. I had no idea Salt Fork Lake was that big. It helped that the skiers and speed boats weren’t out yet, as it really added to the vibe having a calm lake that early in the morning.

As we were making our way through the trails, we kept coming up on the “purple loop” which led us both to believe that there is a main jugular trail that goes through all of the little side trails. That’s a pretty cool feature if you ask me. It would allow us to eliminate all the road running and just stay in the woods. Maybe next time we could test that theory.

About 9 miles into our run, I needed to refill on my water bottle so we stopped at one of the campground restrooms. This is where entered our time warp. We started back down the road a little way and found a path, we were just chatting along and then all the sudden we both recognized a big rock. We stopped for a while and tried to make sense of it, but couldn’t… Then we started heading back up the hill and got to the road. Without knowing yet where we were, we kept heading the same direction (left). Then about 1/4 mile down the road, we realized that we were going the opposite way. Still unsure how it happened, we gave into our senses and turned around. Once we got back to the restrooms we realized what we did and continued on. It’s always an adventure with Kim! :)

I also learned on this run that there have been Big Foot sightings at Salt Fork. That got me looking into the woods a little deeper as I ran once I found that out. Apparently they have bigfoot conferences at Salt Fork once a year and people come from all over the country to talk about Bigfoot. Unfortunately, we didn’t see him… :P However, it was nice to know that we were in good company out there in the wilderness. :) At one point I think we ran across some bigfoot droppings at one point though. That or there was a huge (bigfoot sized) horse that really had to go…

Anyway, we had a great run and I got to run on some new trails. They were all new for Kim too, so it was a double win for the day. When we got back to the cars, Kim’s watch was still on her hood! The good news is that somewhere between 7am and 11:30am her GPS had synced with the satellites. :)

Having great company to run with helps the miles go by so fast. Before I knew it, I was running late back to my house to spend time with the girls. On my way out of the park, I pulled off 5 ticks! 2 were attached and 3 were working their way up my leg. My skin felt like it was crawling all the way back home, but when I got home and in the shower, there were no more.

Hocking Hills Camping Vacation

Last week, Jennifer and I took our girls to Hocking Hills State Park for a 4 day / 3 night camping vacation in our new popup camper. We all had a blast!

Here is how it all breaks down, day by day, and attraction by attraction. Note that there are a lot of candid shots at the bottom if you just want to scroll to them instead. :)

Wednesday

We arrived at Top O’ the Caves Campground around 4:30 pm after a quick drive. Once we got checked in, Jennifer and I got the camper all “popped up” and got everything turned on. Immediately we started a fire and cooked ourselves some hotdogs and s’mores for a nice family dinner. I, of course, washed down with some nice Sam Adams beers. We were all very excited to get up early the next morning and start hiking.

Thursday

We woke up around 8am, after a very short night’s sleep. Jen and I weren’t sure how to work the heater or the electrical system on this new camper, so we did a lot of trial and error all night long. Needless-to-say, neither of us felt very rested when we woke up. Jen cooked up some yummy eggs, sausage, and ham on the gas grill before we headed out for our full day of hiking. Today’s agenda consisted of Old Man’s Cave, Cedar Falls, and Ash Cave.

Old Man’s Cave

Wow, what a beautiful place! We started off at the main parking area and walked through various mazes of paths to get to the actual “cave”. Once we got to the cave it was well worth the 1/2 mile trek with the kids. There were a few spots where I (as a grown adult) had to duck through various walk ways along the path. The girls had a blast and really wore themselves out here. We were going to continue along the trail to see what else it had to offer, but decided to turn back and head towards the picnic area for a quick bite to eat. We still had to visit two other places today and we didn’t want to get too tuckered out here.

Cedar Falls

This place was really neat as well. I’ve ran past it before and heard the falls while running the Indian Run, but I’d never actually seen it. The girls thought it was really cool because they were able to climb all over the rocks real close to the actual water fall. :)

Ash Cave

This was the favorite of the day for everybody. We clearly saved the best for last. The cave was very big and had a magnificent water fall that fell over the caves’ ceiling. The girls especially liked it because it had a bunch of sand that they got to play in. The hike back to the cave was also nice because it was totally paved and we were able to let the girls pretty much take off and do what the wanted. Every other place today we had to watch them like hawks to prevent them from pummeling over a cliff.

After Ash Cave we all went to the Hocking Hills Dining Lodge and had a nice dinner. The place was really cool, we all sat near the window that was about 40 feet above the forest and you could see above all the trees for miles. We had a great time and filled up real good after our full day of hiking. By the time we got back to the campsite it was nearing 7pm, so I started a fire and we had some more s’mores then played cards in the popup (slap jack) before calling it a night.

Thursday was a great day!

Friday

It poured last night! And, I mean poured. I woke up a few times from the rain pounding down on the popup. It was loud and windy. The girls all slept pretty good, but Jennifer and I had another rough night of sleep. We finally “woke up” around 9am while the girls were all starting to get crazy and eat pop-tarts in the camper.

After Jen made a very yummy breakfast, we all put on our poncho’s and headed out for our second day of hiking in the Hocking Hills. We were pretty sure that we would be the only ones hiking today since it was still raining and very cold. Us Hardbargers don’t care! We’re hard core! Today’s agenda consisted of Cantwell Cliffs, Rock House, and Conkel’s Hollow.

Cantwell Cliffs

Heart attack! This was a very cool place, but man did it give us a few close calls with the 2 year old. :) The place consisted of an immediate decent through the rocks and many man-made stair cases in the rocks. The view’s were absolutely beautiful and there was nobody out today due to the weather. We had the whole place to ourselves and really got to spend as much time and be as loud as we wanted.

We did have one close call with Daizi way up on a cliff… She was walking along and then all the sudden, she tried to turn around and talk to Jazzy while walking and she started to drift. Luckily I saw it all in slow motion and stopped her. She was probably 2 feet from a 40 foot drop off; I decided to carry her the remainder of the hike. Phew!

After this hike, we all headed into the town of Logan and had a nice sit-down lunch at a small cafe. The girls were absolutely tuckered out already from all the steps at Cantwell Cliffs. We thought it was a nice time to stop and pump them full of carbs and protein before heading out to the other locations…

Rock House

This was a very cool place! It was basically a bunch tunnels in the side of a cliff. All the rain and river water that flows over a cliff erodes the wall back and creates these caves in the rock. The girls loved it! We got a lot of really cool pictures and had a blast at this place. It goes without saying that we had this park to ourselves as well because the weather was cold and wet. Some might say that the weather sucked, but we loved it of course. :)

Conkle’s Hollow

This was (by far) my favorite of the whole trip. It wasn’t part of the Hocking Hills State Park, rather it was a State Nature Preserve (similar to Blackhand Gorge) within the boundaries of Hocking Hills State Park. There was an upper trail and a lower trail. The upper trail was a 2 1/2 mile single path journey around the gorge, whereas the lower loop was a 1/2 mile paved trail into the gorge. We decided to stay on the lower trail and take our time.

Every step of the way was absolutely gorgeous. There might be a 140 foot cliffs on one side and a mossy green cave wall on the other side with a water fall. I can’t remember how many times I told Jennifer that it was my favorite place. When we got to the end of the 1/2 mile hike, it was the grand finale of beauty. There were 3 water falls that fed the stream we just walked down. I would have never guessed that the stream we were following was fed by 3 immaculate water falls.

If you get a chance to visit Hocking Hills State Park, be sure to take the time to visit Conkle’s Hollow, and walk the entire and lower path to the end. It’s a very pretty and slow stroll through Mother Nature’s finest work.

Conclusion

We all had a great time and the girls created memories that I’m sure they’ll cherish forever. I know that Jennifer and I sure did. Here are some random pictures that I feel are “share-worthy”:

The end.

Yooper Camping Trip 2008

Warning: Huge Post
Feel free to skim the headings and read what you want. It won't hurt my feelings. :)

As you already know, I ran the Grand Island Trail Marathon this year. When I signed up for the race in late December, I had envisioned taking the family up and making a mini vacation out of it. As fate had it, we did. :P Jennifer and I planned to take the girls camping all week in tents from July 20th - July 27th in Munising, Michigan. This way, we'll camp all week, I'll run my race, then we'll head back home.

Ready, Set, Go
Jennifer and I stayed up pretty late on Friday night and got the van and trailer packed up so we could wake up, feed the farm, then hit the road around 9ish. We woke up damn early and got everybody fed then off we went at exactly 10am. Our first destination was half way up into Michigan for a stay in Houghton Lake. This was a good half way point, but we had a long drive ahead of us. The girls watched DVD's in the back of the van while Jen and I just gabbed about how much fun we were going to have. There were only 2 pitstops on our way up, one was a potty break and the other was a coffee break... maybe it was the other way around, but I digress. The drive up was pretty uneventful for the most part. We decided to stop at Cabela's before we got to Houghton Lake to break up our first part of our trip.

Cabela's
If you go to Michigan, you go to Cabela's; it's that simple. This is quite possibly the best store in the world. Jennifer would spend all of our money here if we had it. We stopped here and ate a quick bite to eat and stretched our legs out for a while. It was raining and there was an outdoor tent sale. I figured that since the girls still had another 3 hours or so in the van, it was only fair that I let them play in the rain. A lot of people watched me let them play in the rain and commented on how great it was that I let them splash in the puddles. Jennifer was (of course) shopping and didn't know I was letting them do it, but it was fun to watch them have so much fun; they loved it! I bought a 32 oz. percolator so that I could still get my coffee fix away from my Bunn. We ate at the cafeteria and I had the Bison Burger. It was "ok", but I didn't see any fireworks from it like I had expected. Anyway, the kids were wet, I was full, Jennifer had shopped, and we had a bit more driving to do... so we left.

Houghton Lake, Michigan
We arrived at our first stop @ a Holiday Inn Express around 8pm and was able to get some family "pool time" before the pool closed. After the pool time fun, I took a quick 3 mile run through the quiet (and very dark) streets of Houghton Lake while the girls watched the Disney channel and ordered pizza. I must say that it was pretty creepy at times because I was in a place I'd never been before on very rural streets. I had nothing more than my headlamp, my reflective clothing, and a water bottle. I found myself on a long stretch of country road with my headlight as the only source of light at times. There were no street lights through some of my run and I felt like I could have been the headlines for a local newspaper a few times. I just focused on the sounds of midnight wildlife and kept happy camping thoughts in my head instead. :) Needless-to-say, it was a good run and it helped me get my legs moving after a long day of driving.


Mackinaw Bridge & St. Ignace
We woke up around 10am and got out of the hotel after a quick continental breakfast. Our next destination was the Mackinaw Bridge. We had heard that it was big bridge and... we heard right. This was an amazing work of art.

We visited a gift shop in Mackinaw City, then crossed the bridge to find a restaurant and eat some lunch. The bridge was 4 miles from end to end and I thought Jennifer was going to crap her pants at one point (she doesn't like heights). We ended up eating at a place called Driftwoods in St. Ignace that over looked the lake. We all fell in love with St. Ignace; Jazzy said "Mommy, this is like a dream, only it's not". :) She nailed it! Jennifer said that she loved this little town and we decided we'd spend some time in this area on our way back down at the end of our vacation.

After our lunch in St. Ignace, we headed over to Munising for our final destination. The drive was really cool. It was just strait-driving through beautiful country side. We followed the shoreline of Lake Michigan for a long time and it really got us in the mood for our week long stay by the water. Campsite here we come!!

Our Campsite in Munising, Michigan
We arrived at Wandering Wheels Campground around 6pm. We got the bikes down first so that the girls could get acquainted with the campground while Jen and I setup the sites. Surprisingly, we got everything setup in about 2 hours. We brought a whole bunch of rope and a whole bunch of tarps, so we hooked it up to prepare for rain right away. We setup two tents, a rain proof picnic table, a clothes line, and considered setting up our screen room, but opted against it to conserve space. People at some of the other campsites even commented that we looked like we knew what we were doing. We felt like pro's at that point. :) This is where we will call home for the next 7 days.

The campground was awesome! We had a prime location that was right by the pool and playground. Better yet, we were about 100 yards from the bathrooms and showers. Nobody was on either side of us all week, so we spread our campsite out and used a lot of space just because we could. As soon as we got setup, we all took a big bike ride and hit the gift shop and got some tips on local hiking trails and site-seeing spots. The front desk was extremely friendly and helpful. We were excited to get around and see how beautiful the upper peninsula is in all it's glory (outside of the van). :)

Yoopers for a Week
We got to bed our first night pretty early and woke on Monday morning ready to begin our week of... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! We did find out that Yooper is what you call someone from the upper peninsula. See, the Upper Peninsula is typically called "The U.P." (pronounced yoo-pee). Therefore, "yooper" just rolls off the tongue when referring to someone from the U.P. So, now I now know the meaning behind the Yooper Geek blog. :) Anyway, the only thing we had to do this week was act like yoopers (ie. just chill out).

Camping Fun
It was so nice to not have to worry about checking my email, beating deadlines, listening to the phones ringing off the hook, or any of that mundane daily activity crap that consumes so much valuable fun time. Jen didn't have to worry about feeding the animals, doing the dishes, washing clothes, or cleaning after all of us. We just hung out and spent quality time with our girls. We swam, then when that got old, we cooked hotdogs, then we rode bikes, then we went site seeing, then we would swim again... no schedule, just family time. We all just kicked it around the campsite and had a blast. Here is a picture of me doing dishes after a yummy breakfast. Jazzy would find a dirty dish, Lizzie would rinse it, I would wash it, Lizzie would rinse off the soap, then Jazzy would take it back and get another dirty dish. We had a pretty good system and it was fun to just sit around shoot the breeze together.

Coffee Over the Fire
I love my new percolator, don't get me wrong... but it has it's own set of issues. It would take about 30 minutes before the water would start boiling (ie. "percolate"). Then it took about 10 minutes to actually brew the coffee. It was hard to time breakfast against this thing. Most mornings, the eggs and bacon were already cooked and eaten by the time the water would even start to boil. By the time the percolating process was done, the sun was out and beating down on us in all it's "sunny-ness". Of course we would have to then wait even longer to drink it because... well, it was boiling hot.

I also discovered that it's not a good idea to reheat percolated coffee after it's been cold. I tried doing this one evening and almost regurgitated it. It tasted like tar flavored oil spill. While some may thing this is useless information, I wish someone would have told me. If one person takes my advise and opts against reheating percolated coffee, I've done my job. You're welcome!.. and tell you're friends!

Pictured Rocks Tour
Wow! The Pictured Rock Tour deserves it's own blog post. However, for now, I'll summarize it with a picture and a big "WoW!"

If you go to the Michigan's Upper Peninsula, pay the money and go on the Pictured Rock Tour! It was a big highlight of our vacation.

Alger Falls
This was a little water fall that was visible right from the road. Alger (pronounced al-jur) is the name of the County that Munising is in. Alger Falls was about 3-4 miles west of the Wandering Wheels Campground. We saw it the first time we headed into Munising and it got us excited to see other falls in the area. There are so many water falls up here in the north side of the UP, and this was our first spotting. :) We would visit other (bigger) falls throughout the week, but this was right next to the road and was pretty cool to say the least. After all, we don't have this type of scenery in central Ohio.

Horseshoe Falls ($15 per family)
This was the first site seeing adventure that we stumbled upon (aside from Alger Falls). We saw signs for this attraction and were pretty excited to see it in person, as it appeared to be pretty big from the various brochures we'd seen. We winded back through some residential area and found the building tucked back into the corner of the woods. We parked the car and walked up to the gift shop since that was the only way to get to the falls. As we walked in the door, we saw a lady standing by the other door (that led to the falls) and next to her was a sign with various dollar amounts. Come to find out, Horseshoe Falls is actually on private property and we had to pay to see the water fall. :( Talk about a disappointment! It was $15 per family to walk through the door and see natures natural beauty. Oh well, we paid it and got some pretty cool pictures of it. Even though it cost money to see, I feel it was (almost) worth it, as these people clearly put a lot of effort into the property to make it an enjoyable hike.

Miners Castle & Miners Falls
This was really cool! We first went to Miners Falls since it was about 2 miles before Minsers Castle. We had heard that this was a nice water fall and had already purchased post cards with pictures of the falls on it; it only seemed fitting that we actually saw it. We parked and wound up walking a little over 1/2 mile before we got to the actual water fall. It was absolutely beautiful! I carried Daizi on my back, so my shoulders were in pretty pad shape by this point. The girls really liked this one though, and so did Jennifer and I.

After we were done at Miners Falls, we drove further up the road to see Miners Castle. We had seen Miners Castle from the Pictured Rocks Tour and (I must say) it's a lot higher up than it looked from the boat. :) Jazzy took a hard fall while she was running along the sidewalk and really banged herself up pretty good. She tripped over her feet and wound up with lots of boo-boos. Once we got her all bandaged up back at the mother ship (ie. the van), we went along with our tour. The sites from way up here were breathtaking. You could see for miles and miles out into Lake Superior. Think of Miners Castle as a big wooden deck way up on a rock; that's basically what it was. We all really enjoyed Miners Castle and Miners Falls. These two attractions were well worth the drive.

Munising Falls
This was another beautiful waterfall that we visited. The walk was very short to see the falls and it was a very quick visit. Not a whole lot to say about Munising Falls, other than it enforced how amazing Mother Nature really is.


Trail Running in Munising
After visiting Munising Falls, I took a quick trail run and found myself in the middle of the most beautiful trails known to man. I started from Sandpoint Beach and followed a beaten path to a bridge that wound through a marshy area. About 1/4 mile later, my run opened up to the woods and I found myself running on layers of fallen pine needles and winding through pine trees and lush plants. The weather was a bit warm but breezy since I was just in the woods right off of the lake. About 1.2 miles into my run I came across a water fall that was only accessible on this single beaten path through the woods. Immediately after finding this water fall, I followed the path up a section of wooden steps that took me up and up to the top of the water fall. It was a pretty intense climb up the steps but only because I pushed myself. Once I got to the top, it was worth it, because the breeze picked up and I could feel the winds coming off of Lake Superior from up here. I wish I could have brought my girls up here to see all of this. It really made my day. I continued along the ridge for a while and wanted to keep going, but decided to only go until 1.5 miles and then turn around and head back to the beach (and my girls). This will go down as one of my favorite trail runs of all times.

Sandpoint Beach
After Munising Falls, I took my trail run (above) while Jennifer took the girls to Sandpoint Beach. It was basically right down the road from Munising Falls. The girls waded in Lake Superior up to their chest and the water was probably 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but they didn't seem to care. I got in the water with them for a bit, but not for long. I only got in a little past my knees and that was far enough.


Oswalds Bear Ranch
This was cool! On our way from Munising to Neebish Island, we stopped to visit a place where there were a bunch of black bears. The girls loved it, as did Jennifer and I. A couple of bears came within 5 feet from Jennifer as she was taking their pictures. I'll be sure to post the pictures up to my online photo album soon. For now, I only have this picture of a bear that almost took Lizzie's head off. :)

The Rest...
I still have more to tell, but I'm running out of energy. :) I'll post this for now and hope to have more later including our trip to Neebish Island, and our log cabin in St. Ignace.

My New Trail Running Partner

I worked from my kitchen most of the morning and into the early afternoon, then around 2:30 or so I was ready to go get my 5 miler in. As I was getting ready to run out the door, Jennifer asked if Jazzy could go with me. My first reaction was "No, not today, but maybe on my next run."

Once I realized how horrible and selfish that sounded, I got excited and said "Jazzy, you wanna put your shoes on and go run with me?". Her eyes lit up like silver dollars and she said "YEAH!". She's always talking about how she wants to go running with me and how she can't wait to run in her new Sketchers because she thinks their so fast. :)

We hopped in the car and went down to Marie Hickey Trail (2 mile loop). Since this is her first "trail run", I'll start her off on an easy 2 miles at her pace and then I'll come back out later in the day to get my other 3 miles in. She's hiked this trail with me a few times, so she knew how long it was.

She ran beside me for a long way (maybe 1/2 mile) very slowly, but in jogging motion. She is a very cute runner; arms, legs, head, everything moves when she runs. :) I gave her one of my Nathan water bottle gloves and she felt like big stuff. Of course she filled the zipper pouch with flowers, leaves, and rocks to give to Mommy, and I carried it most of the way. She tripped over 2 roots and the second one was doozy, but she jumped up as quick as she fell down and brushed herself off. The entire 2 mile loop took us 53+ minutes, and she was pretty wore out from the hills. I gave her some crazy credit and told her she's now a "trail runner". She jogged behind me for quite a ways. At one point, we walked for a good distance to just "take a bwake", and she finally spoke up and said "Can we run again?", to which I said "SURE! Let's go!". Of course, we would have to stop every so many yards to look at flowers, bugs, and other cool things to add to her zipper pouch. :) I showed her what rock moss was and she was fascinated by it. "Feels wiewd!"

I realized tonight that I have to do this more often! Man, I'm so happy Jennifer asked about taking Jazzy with me; we had a blast! She has told everybody about "running with daddy" today and she was so proud to spend that time with me. I'm a lucky dude! Nothing like trail running with my little girl.

When got back, she got in the tub and I went out for a quick 4 miler on the Blackhand Gorge bike path @ 9:30 per mile pace. :)

2008 Trail Marathon - My First Marathon

Well, I did it. It took me 6 hours 52 minutes and 27 seconds, but I crossed the finish line. I was 6th from last place, but this is a race that I'll be proud of for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I'm hardly able to walk right now and can't even think about running for at least few more days. My legs are totally useless and steps are near impossible. I love it!! :)

Here is the story from beginning to end. I'll try to keep it un-boring (new word), but there is a lot to tell from an experience that I will never forget for as long as I live. Thank you to everybody who believed in me and up yours to all those that didn't think I could do it... Just kidding. :) This race was for me and me only.


The Start
I wanted to start early because I knew that I was going to have a slow race. Unfortunately the 'early start' time was at 7am and I got there at 7:05 am. They wouldn't let me start until the actual start time (7:30 am). My leg was a bit tight from the day before; I did the 5 mile run the day before and it brought back my knee pain (as I suspected it would). I'll post my race report about it later, but for now just know that it flared up my knee injury a bit and I toed the marathon starting line with a slight limp. All of my senses were telling me to cancel this race and focus my training efforts for my race in July... I listened to my heart instead and knew that this was something that I wanted so bad; even if I had to crawl across the finish line.

I knew nothing about what I was getting myself into, so I packed for the worst. I read Ultra Runner magazine and Trail Runner magazine and read all kinds of horror stories about blistered feet, chaifing, soggy socks, electrolyte depletion, "call of nature", etc... I decided to wear a backpack with all the necessities. The backpack proved to be pretty valuable as the race progressed. I packed the everything I thought I might need, like (non-runners, move to the 3rd item) toilet paper, petroleum jelly, travel first aid kit w/ band-aids and Neosporin, my iPod, clean pair of Injinji socks, cell phone, GU gels, electrolyte powders, a few power bars, and 2 extra bottles of water. I'll probably pack a backpack for my next race too because I used it quite a bit.

Mile 1 - 5
I kissed the family and took a deep breath. I knew that I was going to be running through the woods for at least the next 5 hours. I was nervous, excited, tired, and anxious (all at once) when the gun went off. I started my limp-run and pain was shooting from my knee to my hip on some of my landings. I was already wanting to walk the flat sections before the first mile marker but I didn't. If I'd given in at this stage, I knew I'd continue to give in throughout the race. I ran steady for the first 7 miles. The only times that I walked was uphills and that was mainly because all of us runners were crammed onto this narrow footpath through the woods and I had to walk because they were walking too.

There was a lot of conversation going on around me and it was all "runner" talk and I didn't really like it to be honest. There was a group of girls that were behind me talking about their training schedules, their work out regiments, running Boston and it all sounded a little too "loud" to pass as a friendly conversation between 3 girls in a large crowd. I just rolled my eyes and kept pushing along trying to keep to myself. Once I let them pass me, I was able to enjoy the race.

I got involved in a conversation with a group of runners who had all ran the Western States 100. I made it a point to not tell them it was my first marathon for fear of switching the conversation to me and I really didn't want to get any advise or anything; I just wanted to run. It was so fun to just listen to their crazy stories about their experiences. These people are amazing and it was nice to meet a group of humble (yet extreme) runners. They asked me what was in my backpack and I just told them I kept a pizza in there for mile 20. They all got a big kick out of it, so I continued to use it for the rest of the race whenever somebody else asked the same question. I didn't want to tell them what was really in there, as I'm sure it would have generated a different kind of laugh. :)

Mile 6 - 10
Nothing too exciting here. I really just focused on my footing. I noticed a lot of people in front of and behind me were tripping over some of the roots. I kept thinking to myself "why don't they just watch where they're going?". I didn't have any problems with roots up to this point and couldn't believe that some people were tripping over the slightest things on the course. The scenery was absolutely beautiful; spring was in full bloom and it was a blue-sky day today. What started off as a cold morning turned into a very comfortable sunny day (mid 60's) with a slight breeze. My knee was still bothering me, but (whether good or bad) it went totally numb at about mile 10 and didn't bother me for another 12 miles.

Mile 11 - 13.1
It was about this time, when I realized what I had signed up for. I wasn't even at the half way point and my legs were already starting to get sore and my stomach was getting very hungry. I had already burned through my McGriddle breakfast and it was time to tap into my backpack. I knew I was going to be passing the 1/2 way point in about 2 miles, but I needed nourishment before then or else I was going to cramp up and put myself on empty.

Up to this point, I'd been able to bypass all of the aid stations by raising my two water bottles and saying "Thanks, you guys rock!". Unfortunately, when I realized I needed some replenishing, I had just passed an aid station and didn't get any snacks or Ultima, so I got to use my backpack for the first time. Without missing a beat, I took off the backpack and pulled out some GU gels and dumped some electrolyte powders into one of my water bottles before refilling it. This seemed to do it. I slowly came out of my hunger pains and was getting some nourishment back into me.

This section of the course was pretty crowded because the 1/2 marathoners all started about 30 minutes after the full marathoners and they were all flying by one after the other. I think a lot of the elite full marathoners were also finishing their second loops too, as it was about 2 1/2 hours into the race. Basically, everybody was in a huge hurry to get to the finish line except me. :) I noticed that the first few people to pass me were very encouraging and I loved it! They would say things like "good job buddy" or "keep it up, looking great", and then as they began to be more common, some would just yell "LEFT!", and I would move to the right. :)

Mile 13.1 - 15
I crossed the 1/2 way marker at 2 hours 59 minutes and 53 seconds. As I crossed the half way point, I think a lot of people were surprised to see me stay to the left (which indicated I was running the full marathon). I don't look like a distance runner and (up until today) I wasn't. This was my first true test to see if I could do this thing, and I noticed some of the looks when I stayed to the left and kept running. On my way past the finish line, I was able to steal a couple of bagel chunks and water bottles. Once I got back into the woods I stopped and got my iPod out so I could listen to some music, I refilled my water bottles (both with my electrolyte powders) and put some GU gels in my Nathan water bottle pockets for quick access. This whole process took me about 2 minutes, but it paid off; I felt strong once I got moving again and was ready to do my second loop.

Mile 16 - 20
Running felt very comfortable and I was just enjoying my stroll through the woods. The elite runners had all passed me and I found myself on the loop all alone for the most part of the second loop. Every mile at this point was longer than I had ever run before. The longest distance I did before today was 15 miles at Mohican with my running friends back in December. I recall lifting my arms in the air and doing a small celebration chuckle as I passed miles 16, 17, and 18. However, after mile 18 I began counting backwards from 26 instead.

My mind switched from total joy to really focusing on the little elements of pain throughout my body. My neck hurt, my shoulders hurt, my thighs were really hurting and my feet were in a lot of pain as well. I was pretty much a mess at this point, but I kept running.

Mile 21 - 25
My knee pain came back in full force. I literally running on a battered knee and all the numbness that I'd felt up to this point had come back and my body let me know I still had a "knee injury". It didn't stop me though, for I had less than a 10k to go and nothing was going to stop me at this point. Again, I had no shame in crawling if it came down to it. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that and I was able to focus on my other pains to block out the knee pain.

At about the 24 mile marker I passed somebody that wasn't a member of one of the aid stations. It was my first sign of civilization in a long time and we traded words of encouragement. We were both in bad shape at this point, but I was happy to know that I was "running" past somebody who was walking. This felt good to me and helped me put a hop in my jog even after I got out of sight. I was gonna do this; I was hurting really bad, but I realized at this point that I was really gonna do it...

Mile 26 - 26.2
My emotions started to catch up with me at this point. I couldn't believe I actually ran 26 miles through such a tough course. There were so many hills, roots, rocks, fallen logs, etc... and I did it all for 26 miles with no shortcuts. What may seem ordinary to some of my running buddy's was very extra-ordinary for me. I didn't think I was going to be able to do the entire full 26.2 miles as I started off limping at mile 0. I did not want to jeopardize my leg permanently. Luckily my body went numb at mile 10 and stayed numb for the most part of my race. I was going to earn my Trail Marathon Medal and show my girls how tough daddy really was.

The look on my girls faces when I came out of the woods did it for me. I was broken and battered and my legs were totally shredded (it's the only word I can think of to describe that pain), but it all went away when I saw my girls yelling my name. I picked up Daizi and asked Lizzie and Jazzy to cross the finish line with me. It's a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. All of the people had left, there were only about 4 people at the finish line waiting on the last round of runners and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

My girls ran across the finish line with me! They skipped and ran beside me the whole way and was asking all kinds of questions. I answered them and told them how much I missed them all day. They kept reminding me that I was gone a long time. Jazzy said "Daddy, what took you so long?" and Lizzie said "Jazzy, he just ran 26 miles.". The funniest part of that whole little conversation was that the only reason Lizzie knew is because I told her the night before in the tent while Jazzy was sleeping. :) Lizzie doesn't even know what "26 miles" means, but she sure said it like she did. :)

The picture above is from behind, but I can't wait to get my finish line photo (from camera dude on the left) so I can buy it, blow it up, and mount it on my wall for all to see. I'll look at it whenever I feel like I'm having a bad day and it will mean more to me than anyone reading this could ever understand. My girls don't know how awesome it was that they crossed the finish line with me. What was fun for them is a lifelong memory for me.

The Finish
After I crossed the finish line I put down Daizi and walked out into the freezing lake (socks, shoes, and all) and gave my legs a bit of relief while I let all of my emotions go. Jennifer was standing up on the shoreline with the girls and I think she realized what this thing meant to me. I did it.