Running on Faith

Before I tell you about my week-end, let me start off again with thanking the people that contributed to our cause, St Jude. WE as a team collected over $12,000 to be donated to the St Jude Children Hospital. It is really encouraging to see that these 17 people of Team Running on Faith can raise that kind of money in this kind of economy. I know it is only a drop in the bucket in the big picture but if can continue to put those drops in that bucket maybe one day this hospital will not be needed. I also want to tell who ever is reading this; it is never too late to contribute to St Jude. The race for us may be over but the race to cure cancer is still being run. 

FRIDAY

The long weekend started great, time off from work! Outstanding! We left the house for Memphis right on time, 9:00am. Marci driving, me reading a book, Cam watching a movie and Blake playing on his computer. First stop, a store at mile 3, I always have a Coke Zero and a Reese’s first thing in the morning and the Reese’s I had been watching in the pantry disappeared (thanks Marci). Back on the road in no time but now Marci is fussing at me for not offering to buy her something to eat. Sorry again but next time just ask damn-it. Anyway we’re back on the road and everything is going well, slight chit chat and me mostly reading until our teammate Hardcore (Christine) gets bored and starts texting me. They are about an hour ahead of us and she refuses to let me read. Just to give you an example, at one point we make a pit stop and as I am standing at the urinal my phone went off three times with incoming text. I had trouble replying because they were coming in so fast. Needless to say I did not get the book finished on the trip up. We make a short stop at Wendy’s for dinner then back on the road to arrive in Memphis right around 3:00. Made packet pickup and checked into the Hampton Inn by 4:00. We decided to meet some of our teammates for supper at a restaurant right outside our hotel call Rum Boogies. The 5 kids sat at one table and the adults at the other. It was a very enjoyable pre-race diner. We decided to make it an early night, 26.2 miles or 13.1 to go for most of us, WE HOPED!  

SATURDAY

I had very little trouble sleeping and was up by 5:15. My parents were supposed to be at our room by 6:15. My dad was running the 5-K along with Mason, Lara, Sara, and Blake. My mom and Camren were there for moral support. We met the rest of our team at the start which was right outside our hotel at 6:45. 25 DEGREES!!!! We snapped a few pictures and soon after that the 3.1 milers were off. The marathon and half marathoner all started moving the starting line area. Now let try to give a visual of what the starting line looks like. 10,000 people standing around freezing their asses off! About 7:30 the racers start moving to there correct corals for the start. This allows for the faster people to line up front and the slower people to the back with each coral starting 2 minutes apart. With my original goal of running the marathon in under 4 hours now long gone and still not knowing if I am running, walking, going 26.2 or going 13.1 I line up in the same coral (4 hours 45 minute) as Marci, Christine, Louise, and Nancy. As we are standing there a patient at St Jude sings the National Anthem. I don’t think I have ever heard it done better. Talk about courage! The horn goes off and the front runners are off. It takes 20 minutes for our group to reach the start but when it does it is such a relief to get this thing started. I told Marci I was going to try and run for a little bit and see how the knee feels. It wasn’t pretty but I was running. At this point I was still uncertain what distant I was going but so far so good. Marci and the other ladies from our team slowly pulled away but I continue on with every step seeming to get a little easier. At about the 2 mile mark I run upon Marci walking but her plan all along was to run for about 20 minutes and walk for 5 minutes. Sounded like a hell of a plan to me, so for the next 10 miles that is exactly what I did. “Run/Walk-Run/Walk-Run/Walk” Once we got to mile 12 it became decision time for me! Quit at the half or go for the full? And I must tell you that if I had not had the support of Marci out there on the course, my family waiting at the stadium and the people that contributed to St Jude it would have been real easy just to drag up at the half, but I continued on with Marci by my side. With 13.1 left to go, it got lonely, I am not talking bad about Marci but most of the people that we were running with were half-marathoner. It was probably a 12 to 1 ratio of people stopping at the half. Talk about thinned out, the crowds were gone. We continued on though with our “Run/Walk-Run/Walk-Run/Walk” method which was working pretty well for us. At about the 15 mile mark Marci need to make a pit stop so I continued on alone. I know this sounds bad but I knew she would catch me because she was running considerable faster than me. I was out walking her during the walking parts and she was out running me during the running parts. While out on the street alone I came up on a group of high school cheerleader and I told them I felt like they were cheering just for me. Then I realized no one else was in sight, they were cheering just for me. It was really sad and cool at the same time. Sad because I was all by myself and cool because I had my own cheerleaders.  Anyway Marci soon caught me and we continued on. The mile markers seemed to get farther apart the closer we got to the finish. With the stadium now in sight we make a u-turn up onto an on ramp only to be greeted by an oncoming car with steam bellowing out from under the hood with a lady cop running behind screaming STOP. I just knew she was fixing to start shooting. It turned out to be nothing but a quick headline popped into my head “Husband and Wife are run over and shot near finish line of first Marathon”. Finish line, here we come. I could feel Marci picking up her pace as we run into the stadium and that is when I realize she has been holding back on me or should I say holding back FOR ME. It was cool having the kids, my parents and teammates cheering us on as we finished side by side with identical times of 5:42:07. Looking back, I believe Marci running by herself would have finished with a better time and me running by myself would have had a slower time. She basically drug me the last 13.1. Thank you Marci for being there. That evening most of our team met up at Charlie Rendezvous BBQ to trade the stories and enjoy a good meal. 

Sunday

We were up by 7:00 am to get an early start on the day. We all got dressed and went down for breakfast at our hotel. It was a heck of a sight to see, so many people slowly walking/hobbling around stiff legged. You could definitely tell who ran the day before. We were on the road by 9:00 and home by 2:00. I finally finished my book and yes Christine they did find The Lost Symbol but I am not telling where. Read the book.

 Again, I want to thank everyone for there support over the last 6 month and a special thank you to my loving wife Marci who stood and ran by my side even though I may have been just a little grumpy over the last 8 weeks. Sorry, I‘ll do better next year

46 weeks to go to 2010 Ironman Florida but who’s counting?

As of this writing we are $656 dollars away from our goal. We are close people, HELP US! Donate Now.

 I am writing this after failing miserable at an attempt to run an easy mile. It has been three weeks since my last run and the way I felt tonight it might be three more. As you may have read in some of my team members post, I am injured. The injury is not a new one but one that started two years ago with a meniscus tear. The tear was repaired and I was told then that I had Grade III cartilage damage. At the time I was thinking whatever, when can I run again? The rehab went well and I continued to run with little pain, until three weeks ago. In the last three weeks I have seen two Orthopedics’s, diagnosed with arthritis(grade IV cartilage damage) had one injection and am taking Celebrex to try and make this go away. It is working but it is not getting better fast enough. It feels like the past three months training is going down the crapper!

 Sorry but that is how I am feeling! AAAAHHHHHHHH so sad! I know, I know if this is as bad as it gets I don’t have a lot to complain about. It still stinks!

 Now that I got the complaining out of the way it is time for me to regroup and try and figure out how I am going to go 26.2 miles. Plan A is to run when possible but I am trying to have a plan B. With that being said today’s run/walk was not a complete loss. I walked what I thought was a fast mile in about 14 minutes and 30 seconds. I am kind of mentally preparing myself to walk the 26.2. Anyway, at that rate it will take me over 6 ½ hours. One way or the other 26.2 is in my future.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of

comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank You to the members of Central Lodge #442 for there generous donation to Team Running on Faith.

Eight weeks to go and as of this post we are still $2,834 away from our goal. Please people we need your help! I know a lot of the people that read this are people that have already given and we thank you but if you haven’t given please consider it, every bit helps. I also ask that you please pass this site on to your friends and family, help us make a difference.

 With that being said it has been a few weeks since my last post and all is going well, I guess. OK everything is not going well, I am tired! I am tired of running. I am tired of triathlons. I am tired of the heat. I am tired of work. I am tired of going to the gym. I tired of riding my stationary bike. I am tired of cutting the damn grass. I am tired of doing the laundry. I am tired of doing the dishes. I am tired of getting up at 4:00am every morning. Do you get the picture? I am just TIRED!!!!! BUT as Timbeaux has said in one of his previous post “the show must go on”! I hate to give Tim credit but it made a lot of since and with every long run I do I keep telling myself “the show must go on”. The kids at St. Jude don’t have a choice they must continue on, so I must continue on. I have got to do this. OK, I am done complaining, I just needed to vent a little.

 Back to my training. My running is going well, my long runs are up to 16 miles on the weekend, my Tuesday and Thursday runs are around 6 to 8 miles and I am now trying to add a couple of recovery runs in between if time allows. For the month of September my total mileage on runs alone was 87 and for the month of October it needs to be more. My running times are not all that good but I’m still hoping that it will all come together as my fitness level goes up and the temperatures come down. Please temperature, come down.

 I have also started running with my heart rate monitor more and more and that has slowed me down considerably. I kept seeing the headlines:

 “40 Year Old Man’s Chest Explodes While Training for Marathon”

 I had no idea that my heart rate could get so high. For those who have never monitored your HR while you run or if you are smarter than me and don’t run. Here is how the HR thing works. The old rule school of thumb for maximum heart rate is 220-your age = Max HR. So for me that would be 220-40=180. There are also dozens of other calculators on how to get your maximum HR. I think I tried all the different methods and I came up with an average of about 185 beats per minute maximum. So I am calling my MAX HR 185. With that said there are 5 different zones in which you can train, they Recovery (Healthy Heart), Endurance (Weight Manage), Strength (Aerobic Threshold), Interval (Anaerobic Threshold) and Race Day (Red Line).

Somebody correct me if I am wrong but shouldn’t running 26.2 miles be considered ENDURANCE! Me being the person that I am and thinking that I know more than the people that come up with this stuff have been training in the Race Day (Red Line) zone from day 1. The more I read about it the dumber I felt. I started looking back through some of my HR data and realized that on some runs 2 miles in I was running around 95% of my MAX HR and it only got worse from there. The longer I would run, the slower I would go and the higher my HR would go. Talk about counter productive. On one run I actually hit 195 beat per minute, looking back I do not know what in the hell I was thinking? See what I mean with the headlines? Anyway I am now running slower but feel like I might actually have a chance to make it 26.2 miles.

Until next time here is a quote from Jim Rohn.

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” 

Thank you to Pete and Mandy Firmin for their very nice donation to Team Running on Faith. They are friends of Flash and MrXctmnt.

Thank you to Chris and Dylea White and their kids Samantha and Rob for their donation to Team Running on Faith. They are the cousins of MrXctmnt that live in Kentwood, LA.

It seems like only yesterday but it has been 9 weeks since my last post! WOW, 9 WEEKS? Holy Smoke! December 5^th is coming, and is coming fast and we are not evening close to reaching our goal $$$$$ It will be here before we know, so if you have not donated yet, please think about it. We need your help. St Jude needs our help!

As I stated earlier it has been 9. Where do I start? First off let me say I have been BUSY. I know that is no excuse not to take a few minutes and keep my family and friends up to date on my progress. I am sorry and will try and do better next time. Are you happy now Flash??? I apologized.

So you might be asking yourself what I have been doing for the last 9 weeks that has kept me so busy. Life is what is keeping me so busy. First off the kids are back in school, Cam in the 7^th grade at St Alphonsus and Blake is a freshman at Catholic High, yes, I now have a kid in high school. Damn, I feel old! Cam of course has hit the ground running. It has been business as usual for him and I am really proud of him for it. Blake is also doing out standing; it has been a big adjustment for him being in a much bigger school and for the first time is running cross country. He is adjusting nicely. Secondly I have been swimming, riding and running, A LOT. In the last 9 weeks I have done one unplanned adventure race, one 5-K run, and three triathlons all while continuing to train for St. Jude. What follows are the simplified race reports. Let me start by telling you about the most exciting event, the adventure race. August 1, a typical long run turned into one hell of a race, a race against time. The run itself was going quite well up right up to when the stomach pain hit, mile 5. As Marci has talked about in some of her posts, my parents live on our run course and up to this point have been very helpful with water and words of encouragement. All that encouragement and support was washed away that morning by one simple mistake. At mile 6, after managing to run a hell of a fast mile while in serious distress and finally reaching my parents driveway and SPRINTING across the yard, and believing I will in fact make it to a restroom only to find no spare house key. DAMN!!!!!! At that point my normal training run became an off road adventure race, another 200 yard sprint along a ditch between two ponds and down into the canal I go with the neighborhood dogs in tow! Crossing the finish in Memphis would have giving me no greater pleasure than to reach that wooded canal. Even though it was a one man adventure against nature, it was the biggest victory of my career to date. On the morning of August 15, Blake and I did a Triathlon in Lafayette called the Games of Acadiana, it is a fundraiser for the Miles Perret Cancer Service. It is a well put on super sprint distance that is always a blast to compete in and it is for a great cause. Blake finished 2^nd and me 3^rd in our respective age groups so it was a good morning. That very same evening was the Twilight 5K put on by Club South Runners. It’s always the first 5K of the fall season and it was also our first opportunity for most of our team to get together. We had a great evening and it was a pleasure to get to meet everyone. Two weeks later on August 30, Blake and I did another Triathlon in Opelousas, La. It was a benefit for the area Boy Scout Troop. Blake took 2^nd in his age group again and I took home a door prize. As I have said before it is an absolute blessing to be able to compete with your kids. On Sunday September 15 the Cajun Man Triathlon was held in Lafayette, LA. Marci and I have been waiting for over a year for this event. We signed up for it in 2008 but it was cancelled due to Hurricane Gustov and by the way this day started you would have thought a hurricane was fast approaching. It was an early start for us driving over the morning of the race as it rained and lightening the entire way. The rained stopped about an half hour before the scheduled start and the race director decided to start a little early to try and get it in before the rain started again. His plans did not work. The rain started back up about half way through the ride and continued until I was done. My swim (800 meters) went off without a hitch but the run from swim exit to transition was quite painful for a tenderfoot. The ride (20 miles) was quite dangerous and I saw several riders with flat tires and one rider off in the ditch, I later heard he broke his leg and required surgery before the end of the day, OUCH! The run (3.1 miles) was what I really wanted to do well in because of all the training that I’ve been doing. The plan was to run a 7:45 pace but about the one mile mark I ran upon on a good size MAN and being the person I am I decided to speak. After a couple of polite words, I needed to continue on and as I did I got a slap on the butt from HIM!!! That is just so wrong in so many ways but talk about motivation, my 7:45 pace just did not seem fast enough, it was time for some speed work. I finished the run with a 7:30 pace and after that slap on the butt I had trouble stopping even after crossing the finish line. Two weeks later I still get grossed out thinking about it. That was just WRONG!

Back to the beginning, 11 weeks from this past Saturday we will be in Memphis, TN running 26.2 miles for St. Jude, Please donate.

Another big thank you to my parents Jimmy and Arnell Esch for their second generous donation in the names of their grandchildren and for their continuous support.

Thank you to Paul’s Uncle Henry and Aunt Miriam Esch for their donation to Team Running on Faith!

It has been about three weeks since my last post and not much has changed as for as my training goes. I am still running regularly, twice during the week, between 3 to 4 miles and a long run, up to 11 on the weekend. We are still cycling as well when the opportunity arises. That’s it. See, told ya, not a lot to talk about with my training; I still have a lot of work to do!

Now let me talk about some other things that have been happening in our lives.

As I have mentioned before, Marci and I are blessed to have two healthy kids and a couple of things has happened with them over the last couple of weeks that got me thinking about the reasons we signed up to do this marathon.

Camren is our youngest. He’s 12 and is probably one of the sweetest caring kids you will ever meet. He has a grin and hug for just about everyone he meets. Well, he had a small outpatient procedure done at BRASS about three weeks ago to remove some pimple like bumps from different parts of his body, nothing serious but they were going to have to knock him out to do it. As we were sitting there waiting for and knowing the nurse was going to come out and tell us everything was fine, it got me thinking about all the kids and parents at St Jude’s that are not near as fortunate. A lot of the parents at St Jude’s will not be getting good news and the thought of that just gets to me. In fact a lot of parents will be getting bad news and they need our help. There is not a lot we can be but we (that means YOU, whoever is reading this, and me) still need to help.  Donate Please.

Blake is our oldest.  He’s 14 and a fierce competitor. There is nothing in the world he would rather do than beat me in a race of any kind. I’ve always told both kids that when you beat me at something, it is because you beat me. I will not let you win! Well, it just about happened at a triathlon in Lake Charles two week-ends ago. I will give you the high points. It was his first open water swim, 525 meters and he beat me by a minute and a half. Luckily my ride was good, 15 miles, and I beat him by just over three and a half minutes. The run, two miles (think about it, I am training for a marathon); he beat me by a minute and a half. Overall I took the win, by 45 seconds, but I can see my days are numbered. You might be asking yourself where is this idiot going with this story. Well, I was thinking after the race about how proud I was to be competing in an event, and having my son damn near beat me and how there are parents at St Jude’s that would love the opportunity to do some of the these things we are doing. Right now their hands are tied and they are watching their kid fight for their life. It is just not fair and we need to help. Donate Please.

Please help us, Team Running of Faith, help them. We can make a difference.

Paul