I did it!!!

Well... I made it. All 26.2 miles. In 4 hours 37 minutes and 3 seconds. Not quite as fast as I was hoping to run but I survived!!! And here I am just two weeks out from the race and already walking around pain free. Woohoo!

I started the race on Sunday October 30th with the second wave of 15,000 runners at 8:45 a.m. It took about 2 or 3 minutes from when the gun went off until I was able to make it to the start line and then a few more minutes before I was able to really get moving. I felt pretty good right off the bat and ran the first 13.1 miles in 1 hour 50 minutes. I just didn't have 26.2 miles at that pace in me or my knee on the day of the race and pretty much wound up crawling my way home from about mile 16 or 17 on. Click on the following link to see a map of the 26.2 mile course winding around throughout the city: http://maps.mapnetwork.com/dc/marinecorpsmarathon/route.pdf

It was great to see so many people out cheering for me and the rest of the team on the day of the race, especially the cheering section at mile 26.19 who got to see me finish strong and smiling at the Iwo Jima Memorial. It was quite the amazing experience and a day in my life I will surely not soon forget!

Already thinking about what the next marathon will be. Perhaps Chicago on October 22nd of next year. And of course this year's IronMed Triathlon is rapidly approaching (April 8th, 2006) so it's time to get training again. Be sure to stay tuned to keep up with all my humorous antics, shenanigans, and occasional training experiences.

Thank you all sooo much for your love and support! I couldn't have made it all 26.2 miles without you.

Signing out for now,

D.

Anxiety, fear, nervousness, trepidation, and nipple rings

What can I say... It's 17 days until the magical moment when I cross the start line and HOPEFULLY the finish line of my first marathon! I finished my last long run this past Sunday around 12 miles with only moderate knee pain afterwards that was gone by the next day. Planning to keep up with some short runs and a lot of biking and swimming in the next couple weeks to keep in shape. Just beginning to realize how far 26.2 miles is and am wondering what in the world I was thinking way back when that I decided it would be fun to run a marathon. Starting to get a wee bit anxious and I can only imagine it's going to get worse. But I am going to do it!

Wish me luck!!!

VA Beach Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon

Crossing the finish line!

On Sunday September 4th I ran the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. There were 14 bands playing along the course and the energy was amazing. There were sooo many people running - more than 20,000 - and the start was very crowded. I took off at a pretty good pace once I got out of the crowds but started having terrible knee pain around mile 5. Ouch! There was no way to stop running in as little clothing as I had on so... It hurt pretty bad for the next 2 or 3 miles but then the legs were pretty much numb and I just kept going until the 13.1 mile marker (see the picture above!). The pain was pretty excruciating after the legs stopped moving at the finish and I was pretty much crippled for the next couple weeks, but not so much I couldn't make it to the beer garden for a couple of oat sodas first.

The whole trip to Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend was a blast. Made it out for a night of drinking, limboing, frisbee and horseshoe throwing, skinnydipping in the Atlantic, dancing with Chad's beautiful sister, and late night fishing with sexy Chad before the race. And then had an awesome day out on the beach and on Chad's boat for naked wakeboarding after the race. Check out pictures from the trip at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=404735463106&page=1&sort_order=0

That's all for now. Will write again soon.

D.

2005 Hood to Coast Relay

On August 26th I flew to Portland, Oregon to participate in the 2005 Hood to Coast Relay Race. The race is 197 miles starting from the top of Mt. Hood in the middle of Oregon and traverses west across the state through Portland and finishing at Cannon Beach on the Pacific Coast. It is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties and is run by teams of 10-12 members. The first person on the team runs from the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to hand off the "baton" (or slap bracelet as the case was). The second team member takes off running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams rent vans to travel from checkpoint to checkpoint while their team member runs. There were 10 of us on the team, made up of mostly Georgetown law students. We started at 5:00 p.m. on Friday August 27th and crossed the finish line on Saturday at 7:14 p.m. - yes, we ran continuously for 26 hrs 14 mins at 8:00 mile pace to cover the 197 miles from Mt. Hood to the Pacific Coast. I myself ran legs 6, 16, 26, and 36 for our team, a total of 23.2 miles. It was awesome to be chosen to run leg 36 and get to cross the finish line for our team. The first sighting of the beach from about 2 miles away was amazing and made the sprint in to the finish line exhilirating. After crossing the official finish line, we got the whole team together and crossed the ceremonial finish line together hand in hand. It was an amazing experience! Please check out my photos from the race and the rest of my Oregon trip at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=735070172106&page=1&sort_order=0

Hope all is well and will try to update again soon! Be good.

D.

bike rides, bike crashes, and friggin' agates

Last Thursday was a good day... I crossed the 1000 mile mark on my bicycle. Yes, I have pedaled my bicycle now more than 1000 miles (or 5,280,000 feet or 63,360,000 inches or 1,609,344,000 millimeters) since I bought it back in March. I averaged 12.4 miles per hour during my first 1000 miles which comes to about 80 hours sitting on that piece of leather they call a bike seat/saddle. On this very exciting day, I decided that I had not had quite enough fun being as psychotic as I am so I decided to go for a run. I ran maniacally fast and crossed 2 miles in under 12 minutes for the first time in my life! Woohoo!!! I am getting faster.

Three weeks ago Tuesday was not so good a day... I had been watching a lot of Tour de France on t.v. and thought I was Lance Armstrong when I set out with Grant up the Capital Crescent Trail to Bethesda on my trusty bicycle. It was wet out on the trail and we were pedaling hard. I feel like you know where this story is going. As a side note, I should mention that Grant is a maniac (especially on his bicycle) and had been in a bike wreck less than two weeks before this day. To make a long story short, I was following Grant pretty closely traveling around 20 m.p.h. when he went to pass two runners on the trail. I am not sure if he is blind or what but there were bikers coming the other way and no room to pass so he slammed on his brakes and his bike spun out. I slammed on my brakes as well - a little too late under the wet conditions - but Grant and the two runners were in the way and I wound up superman'ed on the pavement at 20 m.p.h. The injuries were brutal but minor considering how hard I crashed. A strawberry on my right side that swelled to the size a of a nerf football, road-rash that made a disgusting scab on my right forearm, some gaping flesh wounds to the right hand, and some gravel impaled in the fingertips that Challice and I were still picking out a week later. Three weeks later and I still have a huge nasty scar on my forearm from the road-rash that is not going to go away for a long time but everything else is pretty much finally healed. Needless to say I hate Grant! I happened to crash on the same day that the leader of the free world George W. Bush crashed into a police officer while riding his mountain bike in Scotland and sustained minor injuries to his hands and arms that were bandaged at a local hospital. On this very day the Ameircan David Zabriskie leading the Tour de France in the yellow jersey crashed at over 30 m.p.h. destroying his yellow jersey and sustaining injuries for which he would later drop out of the race. Maybe we should all stick to a sport with a little less contact... perhaps checkers!

Other than that, running has been going well. I went out on a crazy loop through the national zoo last week that was pretty hilly and fun (if you call running up small mountains in 100 degree heat fun). I ran 2 miles in 11:40 yesterday. Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far with a heat index in the mid 110's. I think I'll stay inside and eat popsicles today!!! I take off for San Francisco tomorrow and am bringing my running shoes so maybe will get to trek over some of SF's beautiful scenery and obscence hills in between some major debauchery. I can't wait!

"My wife's a pain in the ass. She's always busting my friggin' agates. My daughter's married to a real loser bastard. And I got a rash so bad on my ass, I can't even sit down. But you know me. I can't complain."

Heat, Humidity, Hills, and Abe Lincoln

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay but I have been sooo busy training that I haven't had time to post. Just kidding. Really have been enjoying my summer and promise to update more frequently.

So for some reason I thought it would be fun to try and bike a century, 100 miles on a bicycle (no motor) in a single day. This was poor decision making on my part. On very little sleep, I showed up to Reston Town Center at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 12th to participate in the Tour de Cure 100 mile ride across the rolling hills of Virginia to support the American Diabetes Association. Rolling hills my ass. We went 10 miles out flat on the W & OD trail and then up and down several dozen mountains for 70 miles before 20 miles back in on the W & OD trail. The temperature was pleasant in the low 90's and the humidity was in the comfortable range of damn near 100%. I thought I was suffering from heat stroke by mile 40 and I am not sure what you call how I felt from mile 80-95 but it was a happy experience when I crossed the finish line at 3:30 p.m. after 7 and 1/2 hours of excruciating fun. Unfortunately, I got lost 3 times on the ride (yeah that's fun when you have to backtrack over a mountain!), one of which must have been a shortcut because when I crossed the finish line, my odometer read only 96 miles for the day. I was going to do circles in the parking lot for 4 miles but I thought that might have led to many more circles by wheels on the ambulance taking me to the hospital if I would have had to pedal any further so I decided to consume 4 gallons of Gatoraid and chill in the air conditioning instead. Fun stuff! Who wants to do it with me next year???

As for the running, this whole marathon thing is starting to make me a little nervous. I ran my first sub 19 minute 5K a few weeks ago (on a treadmill). I have since quit running on treadmills and have started running outside. It is so hot during the day I have been running at night. A couple nights ago I took off from my house in Georgetown around midnight and ran down to the WWII Memorial, dunked my head in the fountain, trekked over to the Lincoln Memorial for a moment with big Abe, and then looped home. It was a good 5-6 miles and I think I am going to start running this loop more often. Gotta keep running, gotta keep running.

And Chad Russell, I miss you! I'll be in San Francisco soon...

Take care for now,

D.

Baffoons, popsicles, and Chad's nipple ring

So I went for a run with Andy Dietrich a week ago Friday down the "toe path" along the Potomac River. There are a couple places where it crosses some swampy area with wood-planked bridges. Hearing "aaaggghhh!!!" and then "kersplaaattt" was pretty funny but turning around and seeing Dietrich laid out on the ground after tripping like a baffoon on one of the planks was freaking hilarious. We probably put in a good 5-6 miles at a decent pace and the night ended in the beautiful Jessica Silva's hot tub with a 4 liter bottle of wine so overall I rate this a wonderful training experience.

This past weekend was a huge running success. I missed running with the Georgetown team on Saturday morning but went out for about an hour run in the morning anyway. The weather was gorgeous and I still have high hopes of finishing well in October. Unfortunately I probably shouldn't have put in so many miles on Saturday because my legs were still a little tired for the big race on Sunday, the Capitol Hill Classic 10K. It was an awesome course that started in Stanton Park, went out and circled around RFK stadium (temporary home to the new Nationals baseball team), down capitol HILL and around the capitol, and then back up capitol HILL at mile 5.5 before finishing back in Stanton Park. I crossed the finish line in my short hot-pink running shorts at 43:17 which is 6:59 pace for the 6.2 miles. I need to get much faster if I have any hopes of qualifying for Boston next year!

Instead of running today I ate 4 popsicles. Wonderful!

I leave you with something somebody wiser than myself (Walter Sobchak) once said:

"Good night sweet prince!" I love you Chad! And your nipple ring.

And so it goes...

So my blog is underway as is my training for the big day coming up on October 30th. As you may or may not have heard, I competed in Georgetown's IronMed Triathlon on April 10th when I swam 1000 meters, biked 15 miles, and ran 10 km in 2 hours and 21 minutes. I also ran the George Washington Parkway Classic 10 miler in 72 minutes and 40 seconds on April 24th and ran my first under 20 minute 5 km race on May 1st, the Race for Hope to support brain tumor research. I have many hundreds of miles to run in the coming months in the quest to be able to run 7:17 mile pace for 26.2 miles. Wish me luck!

Upcoming events:

this Saturday May 21st - my first run with the Georgetown marathon team

this Sunday May 22nd - Capital Hill Classic 10 km race

Sunday June 12th - Tour de Cure 100 mile bike ride to support the American Diabetes Association

August 27th - 28th - Hood to Coast 200 mile relay race in Oregon with a team of law students from Georgetown

Sunday September 4th - Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in VA Beach

Sunday October 30th - the big day, Marine Corps Marathon

Woohoo!!!

This is me!