Marathon Top 10 Finishes: 7 Bridges ('15), Utah Valley ('13), Salt Lake City ('08), Top of Utah ('07), and St. Louis ('04). Ran around the equator (24901.55) in 4,388 days.
And my largest challenge to date, raise $20,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my cancer survivorship and in memory of those lost to blood cancer...
DONE! $26,403.70
Grew up outside Chicago and joined the blog while I lived in Salt Lake City. Now living outside Birmingham. I am married with two daughters. Wife thinks I'm crazy for doing marathons. And yes I am crazy I'm a scientist for a living...
AM: Hike with a friend from work. Since the day I moved here I've wanted to hike up to the Beacons. About 6wk ago John and I planned to do just that. Even though the last couple weeks have been crazy busy I decided to keep to plan and go on this hike anyway. We met at 6am at Red Butte and headed toward This is the Place. Then up and over the rollers to the trail to between the Beacons to the fire watch tower. Climbed up that and enjoyed the view. Total climb was just under 2100 ft in 2.5 mi. With stopping to enjoy the views and flowers (still out in June!), we made it up in just under an hour and the round trip 5.3 mi took us just over 2hr. We came back the other side. Good and relaxing start to the day, I wish they could all be like this...
PM: Continuing the perfect day theme. Problem is I will have to pay for it the rest of tonight... After working most of the day there was a 5K/Party at SugarHouse. This was in memory of Heather Gross who died in an avalanche this winter, and daughter of members of our church . Her parents are amazing and actually brought us a meal after our daugher was born just 1-2 wk after their's had died. The race was only friends/family and other members of our church. I pushed Kaitlyn to victory but just stayed with the next fastest guy there (~23 min guy). I think he has more talent and really he worked hard in the ~90F temps. The course was not marked and we just did 2 laps of the road (2.75). After Kaitlyn "broke the tape" we continued on for an extra loop...
Well as predicted I was up late, 1am. Then two baby wake-ups before my 5:33am alarm so... I did a direct commute run to lab and then tweaked my presentation a little more, I was happy with it. However, throughout the day my boss tripled my work for this week. He has a grant submission due on the 14th so it is crunch time for that data... After getting home early and doing family time I did the home loop.
AM: 2.5mi Avg. 9:44 HR none PM: 8 mi Avg. 6:58 HR 160, not too bad on less than 4.5hr of sleep...
Today was sluggish but long, mostly from yesterday. I'm still in lab at the moment but about to leave. I did get to go home in the morning to have a picnic with my girls while Sandra ran an errand. Then I did my run right after work. I had to push it despite the 90F+ temps as Sandra had a second event today. Just the exact same course as yesterday. Then back to work after the girls were down and Sandra was back. Avg. 6:42 HR 170
Relaxes a little last night, but very long day today. In at 5:30am out the door after setting up two things. Initial plan was for 6 mi but the weather was too nice and I continued down into Memory Grove, then up the ramp and back. The day was long and a bunch of things happened that were frustrating but I kept my cool and plugged along. The only draw back was I got home a little over an hour late. The good news is that Sandra had plans so then I got some good family time with the girls. Avg. 9:31
It is nice to relax. Yesterday got home from work early.
Played with the girls and headed over to a BBQ a friend from church was
hosting. He knows how to party. He had the most amazing steak, beacon wrapped
chicken tenderloins and the sides were equally as fancy. A few full coolers and
a trunk full of fireworks. We weren’t able to stay for all the fireworks but we
did do some sparklers and smoke bombs. In any case it was a late night and then
early morning. I had to get the run in before the 8am neighborhood 4th
pancake breakfast. My plan for a couple of weeks was to run the 2X5K workout this
morning. This time I started and finished at the exact same spots so that I
could directly compare my efforts. Last time the plan was 2X18min and I hit
~18:15s. This time the plan was as hard as I could muster on the first and then
negative split. Same one mile warm up. Turned down Sunnyside and I was off.
5:28.71HR 162
5:33.11HR 172
5:38.97HR 178
0:38.11HR 179
TOTAL 17:18.90
It felt ok. My leg/knee was a little tight but otherwise it
was a good effort. About a three mile recovery back to the start and I was off
again.
5:22.58HR 168Better, a little more
awake
5:32.63HR 175I could feel the fatigue
but at least it wasn’t slower
5:40.42HR 180Really feeling it. Bummed
I couldn’t negative all the splits
0:36.86HR 182
TOTAL 17:12.49
Overall, I am happy with the results. I made my main goal
and ran the second faster. Both were hard but not all out, 5hrs of sleep 2
beers and a pound of steak have a way of slowing one down. I know there is room
for improvement but my progress is going in the right direction. The rest of
the day was relaxing. Pancake breakfast, hour nap, ran some errands for the
around the house, and grilled for both lunch and dinner and that is about it.
Avg. 7:24 HR 150
