El Burro Blanco

5 miles in the morning.

5 miles in the evening. 

The weather was hot this morning and so I went out for an easy 5 mile run without the watch. I will do a mini speed workout tonight.  I was going to go up too Logan to run with Paul but wasn't able to due to Katey working late.  I did the same workout as Paul (2 x 1600m @CV pace with 800m rest).  I did this workout at Ben Lomond High School.  The first one was 4:52 and the second was 4:57.  It was a nice little push before the trials.  I will get the miles in the next couple of days but really taper for this Saturday.  

I was up in Logan spending time with Katey since I had UEA break.  The weather was a little chilly but it is comparable to how it will be in New York.  I went for a 10 miler up towards Smithfield and back to the in-laws.  I got a couple hills in their and ended up doing the entire run at a 6:55/mile pace overall.  It felt good.  I will get a couple miles in tomorrow and then probably take Thursday off due to a long day of travel.  We will see.

I did a nice 6 mile run this afternoon without my watch.  The weather was great and the falling leaves made the run quite relaxing.  Katey and I fly out tomorrow.  I still can't believe I am going to be running with the best of the best on Saturday morning.  I plan on going there and trying my best while having the biggest smile possible.  I feel truly blessed to have this opportunity.  Thank you fellow bloggers for all of the support.  It is very much appreciated.

What a day!  It was really long due to the flight too New York and trying to navigate my way around NYC on the subway.  We were on the subway for about 4 hours today trying to get to our friend's house and then going to pick up my packet.  We eventually got to the headquarters and got most of my stuff for the race.  The New York Road Runners' people were extremely nice and helpful.  I received lots of goodies that will help me remember this moment.  I was talking with the NYRR's people and I got excited with some of the running studs there.  Ed and Jorge Torres walked in and grabbed some drinks and bananas!  I remember reading about them in the book, "Running with the Buffaloes."  Everything is still quite surreal for me.  I miss the good old Rocky Mts. but the big tall buildings aren't half bad for a few days!  I am meeting up with Paul, Sean, and a couple other guys tomorrow to go and run on the course around Central Park.  Let's go see how those rolling hills are!

I woke up early and hoped on the subway to go and meet up with Paul.  We went and did about 3.5 miles around Central Park.  We both decided that we should tuck behind a group and draft off of them due to the expected winds (25-30mph).  It should make the race interesting!  We got back and headed off to a technical meeting where we heard from the fluids' guy, referee, and many others.  These people are serious about their marathoning.  The lunch was good and it was nice talking with Paul and Sean.  The FastRunningBloggers represented well.  I got some dinner in me and went back to Paul's room.  I'm technically not supposed to stay here but where Katey and I are staying is about an hour or so away and I don't particularly want to wake up earlier then I have to.  I went down to the chiropractor and had him adjust my hip.  It feels much better now.  Paul is much more eloquent with his words and I agree with what he put on his blog.  I saw all the great ones today and was lucky enough to eat lunch with them: Alan Culpepper, Meb, Ryan Hall, Abdi, Brian Sell, Sean Sundwall, Paul Petersen, and etc.  I don't know what to expect tomorrow but I will go out and try my best.  It will be quite the experience.  Brian Sell was sitting in front of us on the bus and I sort of eavesdropped on his conversation.  I was wondering what a really fast runner likes to talk about.  Ironically, it was a lot of the same things as those of us that aren't as fast (i.e. food, running, more about food, and then top it off with more talk about running!) 

Well here goes the official race report.  I stayed over in Paul's hotel and then woke up at 5:20 to hop on the bus.  Brian Sell, Alan Culpepper, and Ryan Hall were on the same bus and they looked ready to roll.  We had police escort over too Rockfeller Center and then went below where they film the Today show to wait until the start.  It was nice and warm.  I stretched out, did a short warm-up jog and then went too the bathroom 4 times.  What a morning!  We went up out too the starting line and it was crazy.  Their were huge TV cameras and lots of people all over the place cheering.  It hit me again that I was in New York running in the Olympic trials.  The weather was cold and windy so I wasn't sure of what to expect.  I went out with Paul for the first mile or so and it was fun running down 5th avenue towards Central Park where all the big TV screens were.  The lights were actually quite bright that early in the morning.  We made our way into Central Park and I got in a pack of about 10 guys.  Their were 2 Hanson guys (one was Trent Briney) and ran with them for the first 8 miles of the race.  It was nice running in a pack because we shared fluids and were able to draft off of each other.  The sides were lined up with huge amounts of people.  It was crazy!  They were cheering my name and I was wondering how they knew my name.  I forgot that my last name was on the front of my bib!  At mile 8, I started to get a side stitch and had to slow down a bit.  It eventually went away and I went through the halfway point just under 1:13:30.  I was feeling fine and running solo at this point.  The pack was up just a bit and was going to hold off to try and reel them in.  It was at about this point my body started acting weird.  My legs were heavy and everything was going numb.  The cold weather and wind could have played a part but I was not sure.  I had sleeves on at the start and then threw them off to the side during the race.  That wasn't too terribly smart because the temperature got colder.  I was slowing down quite a bit and then I just happened to look down.  I had good old bloody nipples!  My tape fell off and the rest is history!  People watching the race were cringing on the side.  It didn't hurt at all so I was fine with it.  We will see if they hurt tomorrow!  I continually got slower and the body kept shutting down.  My body has never done anything like this before.  Right before mile 24 I had to stop and walk.  I really didn't want to do this but I was really dizzy and not feeling great.  A medic on a bike came up to me and asked if I was planning on finishing.  I told him I would try and I started to go again but nearly fainted and passed out.  My body was not right and I didn't want to do any serious damage to my body so I asked for a cart and went to the medic tent.  I realized at this point I was not going to make my goal of finishing the Olympic Trials.  I was really bummed out but knew my health was important.  Once I got on the cart and started heading too the medical tent, the driver hit his breaks because he thought he heard someone say "stop" and the passenger flew out of the cart about 15 feet and landed on his chest.  He couldn't get up and I was not in the best shape.  I couldn't believe this had happened.  The guy turned out to be okay and we made it too the tent.  I started to shiver and cold really cold.  My legs were cramping up so they got some salt in me and lots of fluids.  I slowly started feeling better but I was in the tent for close to 20 minutes.  I have no idea why my body was acting up.  Katey and my mom made it to the tent and were crying all over the place.  I told them I was fine and feeling much better.  I thanked the medics for their help and we called it a day.  I would have much rather finished at the actually finish line with a real time but it didn't happen.  I then started hearing about how many of the top runners dropped out so I didn't feel to bad.  I heard about the sad news about Ryan Shay and his death.  My thoughts and prayers are with his family.  I learned a lot today.  I realized it was smart of me to stop and not cause any permanent damage to myself.  I also learned that I must take this bump in the road and train even harder to try and make it back to the trials in another couple years.  I want to have this experience again.  I also learned that I was truly blessed to have even run in the trials today.  I could make up excuses about what happened but to put in simply, I'm not exactly sure.  I will continue to move forward and see what happens with my running in the near future.  Thinking about Shay's death made me appreciate my wife Katey and family that much more.  They are a great support and I love them very much.  Great job today to Paul and Sean and all the other Utah runners.  Utah represented very well at the trials.  Thank you once again fellow bloggers for all of the support!