Rob Murphy

PM: 6.25 miles around Sugar House.

6 X 20 second hill blasts in the park. Doubled over, hands on knees, gasping for air type effort. 

Low on energy today. A general lack of pep. Running on fumes. Devoid of vim and vigor. Ready for a nap. Kept the mileage down so I will hopefully feel revived on my 15 miler up at Jeremy Ranch tomorrow. 

Abby and I met Jake and Andrea this morning up at Jeremy Ranch. Andrea was kind enough to volunteer to watch any combination of my kids/dogs this morning while Jake and I ran. Andy was having some stomach issues this morning (he wouldn't eat bacon for breakfast so I know he wasn't faking!) so just Abby came with me and she spent a couple hours hiking and wading through and falling in the river with Andrea.

I did a quick .5 mile warm-up then Jake and I did the 14.5 mile Jeremy Ranch Road in 1:48:33. Tailwind out, headwind back. Saw Luke Puskedra and some other Nike guys out on the road this morning.

Good soak in the river after has my legs feeling rejuvenated already. Need to remember that. Although most of my runs don't have a convenient mountain stream to soak in at the finish. 

Just a really nice morning. 

I'm either sick or being slammed by allergies today. I'm going to take the day off.

My daughter Abby "graduated" from elementary school today so I got to take a half day at work. She got a nice "Hope For America" certificate from the Kiwanis Club for her volunteer work at a local nursing home and getting good grades. 

10.25 miles around Sugarhouse plus 6 fast striders on the grass at Stratford Park.

Had to stop a couple times for some convulsive coughing episodes. My lung capacity is not at 100%. 

Easy run around the neighborhood after Andy's baseball game. 

The race this Saturday is looking really doubtful for me. The Pee Wee Braves, those first grade juggernauts, are steamrolling through the playoffs (defeated the Yankees tonight 12-6) and it looks like they will be playing two games on Saturday. Since Abby has a swim meet as well and Ann is taking her to that, I don't see how I can make the race.

Plus an elephant is standing on my chest and won't get off.

5.25 miles around Sugarhouse. Only doubled over to cough once.

I checked the pollen forecast on the Weather Channel. It calls for "high" pollen totals today and tomorrow and "very high" for Saturday and Sunday. That's just great. 

Four easy miles and some striders.

Wore my new Saucony Guide 6's today. Nice!

Looks like I'm going to make the Utah Valley half tomorrow after all. The race starts at 6 am so it shouldn't be hard to make it back for Andy's game. Allergies are 50% better. Hopefully more tomorrow.

Finished up the school year today. Year 17 in the books. I'm looking forward to a leisurely drive across the upper tier to visit Ann's family in Minnesota. We'll leave Wednesday and stop by Yellowstone, TR National Park, Little Bighorn and maybe a couple other history geek sites either going or coming. Of course there's the Gary Bjorklund Half in there as well.

Some good, some not so good. Off to Andy's baseball game now....more later.

Long 24 hours. I got down to Provo lat night around 9:30 after Andy's game. They lost 11-10 in extra innings but Andy went 4-4 and scored 4 runs. This put his team into the losers bracket (double elimination) which meant he had a game this morning at 10 am and, if they won that, another game at noon. Tough in 90 degree heat on a bunch of 7 year-olds. So his team won both games today, each by the score of 20-12. Now they will play the same team that beat them last night (the Orioles) at 5 pm on Monday and the winner of that game will play the Red Sox for the championship at 6:30 on Monday - the Red Sox having defeated the Orioles 28-26 today :). You gotta love first graders playing baseball.

So Jake and I split a room at the Spiffy Sleep Inn in Provo and managed about 3 or 4 hours sleep. I ran just about 1:19 even which I guess is not bad for me these days. I've been avoiding long downhill runs and it showed today. My chest also felt tight and constricted most of the ways. I managed to take third behind Sasha and Steve Ashbaker in the Masters division and win a little $, but Sasha is just a mere lad of 40.

I had all but given up by mile 11 and ran that mile in 6:43 after coming through 10 in about 59:20. Then Kassi caught me and I managed a 5:58 for mile 12 in an effort to hang with her. This kept me from closing the race out with a couple 6:30s.

I feel like I should run better but I'm just not the competitor I used to be. I am pretty happy to have good health and to be able to run competitively but this is getting really hard. I really enjoy my friendship and training partners and I want to hang in there a while longer. Lets hope I bounce back decently for Minnesota.

AM: 3 mile walk with Ann. Sore!

AM: Gully long run with my cross country boys. I had a really impressive group this morning who managed the gully pretty well on the first official day of practice. Very warm and windy - usually we can count on cool mornings, but not today.

Andy's baseball game today is at 5 pm at the Sunnyside fields (just east of Guardsman up from the East High track on Sunnyside). 

9.25 miles in the gully. I finished early and then sat in the hot tub and swam some while my boys did an easy 45 minutes.

I'm still pretty sore. 

PM: 5 easy miles at Liberty Park. Plus lots of mowing and yard work. 

Seven miles at Sugarhouse Park plus some 15 second hill blasts.

Seven miles at a little before 5 am with Jeff Shadley in Idaho Falls. Cool up here.

We will be winding through Yellowstone today and stopping in Cody, Wyoming tonight. 

12.25 miles in 1:38 around Cody, Wyoming. If you run 12.25 miles around Cody you've pretty much seen it all. Nice town. Finished up with a few laps and some fast striders on the excellent Cody High track - home of the Broncos.

42 degrees when I started!

Going to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center today, the Little Bighorn National Battlefield, and spend the night in Glendive, Montana tonight. 

No running. Only driving. Just arrived safely in Pine River, Mn.

Surprised to find the in-laws have wi-fi. I won't be as isolated as I thought.

OK, so I did run... seven miles on dirt road. Who knows how many mosquitoes I inhaled? 

16.25 miles in 2:05. 

I probably should do something other than easy running at 7:30 to 7:45 pace. 

I'm having a relaxing Father's Day so far. Ann's parents live on 150 acres a few miles north of a little town called Pine River, Minnesota. They also have a small cabin on a little lake called Lake Lizzie - no running water or electricity, but comfortably furnished and it does have propane and an outhouse.

I like it here because I generally don't have to do anything other than sit around under a tree and read with occasional breaks to run and nap . Lots of people these days bring the same attitude to their vacations as they do their jobs. They view a vacation as an ACHIEVEMENT, and have a list of things that must be accomplished in order to make it a success and they often come home more tired than when they left. I have been guilty of this a couple times.

I've been sad the past couple days driving through rural food deserts in Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota watching people literally waging war on their bodies. Sometimes we who live in urban areas romanticize rural life but obesity, diabetes, over dependence on the government, and serial reproduction with multiple partners are rampant. Spending any amount of time in a convenience store or hotel breakfast buffet anywhere in rural America you get the feeling that people are almost literally trying to kill themselves with their pathologically unhealthy habits.  

But yeah, I'm having a great day! 

PM: three mile walk 

AM: 2.25 mile walk. Lots of push-ups, sit-ups, core work.

PM:  This afternoon Ann and I took Andy into Pine River to fish from the dam in the town park. Ann and I got married in the same park in 1994. Andy caught 3 fish.

I ran once around the perimeter of the town (1.25 miles), and then back to Ann's parents house ( 10 miles) for 11.25 miles in 1:25.

Heading out to dinner with Ann now. Ann's sister took the kids to mini golf and dinner. 

No thoughts tonight on the decline of America. 

AM: Three mile walk with Abby.

PM: 12.25 miles around Lake Ada. One of the ten thousand. I wonder if Minnesota runners have a goal of running around each of them? 

I remain atop the mileage board until Jake logs his afternoon run. Of course now I will begin three days of reduced running before Saturday's race. 

Super easy 8 miles at 6:30 am. Lots of deer, many turtles, fewer mosquitoes at that time.

I'll take tomorrow off. 

I've really learned a lot this week. The TV here seems to be stuck on Fox News and the radio dial is stuck on Rush Limbaugh. 

Rest day.

Non-stop rain today in northern Minnesota. 

Easy run around our friend's neighborhood here in Duluth, Minnesota. Followed up with some fast striders. I feel good. Maybe I have a good race in me?

It was nice to chat with Jake, Andrea, and Paul over at the elite athlete digs at the Hampton Inn. They were able to hook us up with some elite athlete coffee, cookies, and chardonnay.  It's great having speedy friends.

Looking good for the race tomorrow except maybe for the 100% humidity. 

I'm very happy about this race . Coming in I was a little concerned about my fitness and my disrupted routine and diet this week. I've also been a little concerned about my racing mindset lately and my willingness to compete with intensity in a longer race. In other words, I've been wimping out a lot lately.

But I ran a good, consistent race today - keeping every mile under six minutes and closing with a 5:45 and a 5:40. I also had a good group of guys to race with most of the way. Turns out several of them were masters runners from a Minnesota club. I also ran the last couple miles with a kid from Edina (a suburb of Minneapolis) with a NXN singlet which we chatted about for a bit. He seemed really happy that I recognized the significance of his shirt and I was really happy to be competing with a guy like that at my advanced decrepitude.

I got a big boost from Ann and the kids at around 10 miles. I wasn't expecting to see them along the course and it really helped at a tough point. I also appreciated Jake and Andrea screaming for me the last couple hundred meters. It's pretty nice to be 1500 miles from home and run into guys like Paul and Jake who seem genuinely interested in my efforts. I feel fortunate to still be able to compete in this great sport and I hope I can make it last a while longer. I don't really have any specific goals any more except to train hard and occasionally be rewarded with a race I feel good about.

So I ended up about 55 seconds slower than I ran in 2011 but I'm happy and I feel like I've made it back. I suppose I should make allowances for being two years older but I'm not totally ready to concede yet. 

I just saw that my "age graded" finishing place was 9th. :-) 

Four easy treadmill miles here at Ruttger's Birchmont Resort in the North woods plus some weights on some antique Universal Gym equipment from the 70s.

AM: Canoeing with Andy, 6.5 miles on the treadmill, swim - hot tub - swim. Nice morning.

10.5 miles around Lake Bemidji State Park. 100% humidity and warm. Ran mostly on trails early so I was breaking lots of spider webs with my face.

Three easy miles in the AM in North Branch Mn. 

Staying tonight in a little town called Osmond Nebraska. Andy and I went and watched some Little League games which were going on walking distance from the hotel. Ate pizza in the room and then went swimming at the town pool which is open until 9 pm! There must be no lawyers in this town as they have an awesome diving board and a 12 ft. deep end. That and an old school metal playground slide bolded into the side of the pool. We had a blast.

Not much running today but I'm going to try and get out at 5 am for a long run around Nebraska.

Rob Murphy signing off from the Heartland. 

AM: 5 miles in 36:30 running west along U.S. Highway 20 in central Nebraska.

PM: 9 miles in 62:30 around Lusk, Wyoming - much of it around the high school track which might be the nicest high school track I've ever seen. Hot! 92 degrees in the late afternoon. 

I highly recommend the Bestern Western Pioneer Motel here in Lusk Wyoming for any of you road weary travelers this summer. Awesome outdoor swimming pool that's great to jump in after a hot nine mile run.

10.25 in 1:16:40. Final run of the trip. We should be home in 104 degree Salt Lake City by mid afternoon.

Fun! Hats off to Allie and James. Why don't more people run this? It's a great way for an entire family to get involved in running, run some track distances we don't normally run, and just generally be around some great people.

I ran the distance medley 1200 leg. Kevin smoked the 400 in 60 seconds, Fritz ran a solid 800 after running right around 17 minutes for the 5k a few minutes earlier, and Jake kept the BYU team from lapping us.

If this had been a mile I no doubt would have closed in 69 seconds to break 5 minutes.

Abby ran the 800 wearing swim goggles, water wings some kind of Hawaiian skirt, and carrying a pool noodle for a relay baton.

I will do this every year if James and Allie stick with it. 

Thanks to Andrea for the pictures! 

PM: Jogged to the gym, lifted weights, jogged back. 

Very hard stairmaster workout. Walked to the gym and then did 506 floors in 60 minutes.