Psalm 91:1 NKJV He who dwells in the secret place

Today was my wedding anniversary. I've been married for 13 years. I took my wife to a movie and to Red Lobster and just enjoyed the day with her. I ate like a horse at Red Lobster and probably gained three pounds.

Then my wife and I went for a 2 mile walk alone. It was great.

Today run was just a slow run with a couple of faster miles but right above Marathon pace.  I felt kind of weak and tired today.  Probably because of all the food I ate yesterday at Red Lobster.  I ran the first 3.5 miles with the dog.  He was testing my patience today by trying to chase after birds. 

 Total 6.3 mile at a 7:05 47 minutes.  I did 4 x 100 strides towards the end of the run.  The morning was beautiful and the temperature was great at 48 degrees.  If I wasn't taping I would have ran longer.

 

I ran 7.1 miles today with 3 being MP miles.  I feel a little better today.  My sore throat and fever have finally left.  Now I just need to get rid of this coughing and stuffy nose.  Today I have a doctor's appointment, because I've had this lump on my shoulder blade that as doubled in size the last two weeks. I first thought it was a pimple but I'm not sure, it been hurting when I turn my neck and move my shoulder.  It's also starting to bother me when I run.  I'm hoping it's like an in-grow pimple.  I never mentioned it because I thought it would go away, but now it's spread a little and is hard around the outside.  But I have faith in God and his healing power.

Anyway back to running,  for Teton I'm just shooting for a personal best, the only competition is trying to beat my conservative mind and get  under or  get around 2:5?.
 

My doctor's appointment yesterday to check the lump/bump on my shoulder went well. It's an infection, but he didn't want to cut it open because of the size and swelling so the doctor put me on an antibiotic for 10 days to cut the swelling down. Either this will remove the infection completely, or reduce the infection. Then the doctor can proceed and cut it out and drain the infection and bandage it up. The infection was caused from an in-grow pimple/zit (those wonderful bumps we didn't like as teenagers), and he said it still might grow it's ugly head.

The first thing he told me and he tells all his patients, "to relief their minds", that it's not cancer, nor did I think it was either. I thought it was something simple which it is, but it's sure irritating my neck, shoulder and hurts when I run. It needs to go away quick.

Thank you for your prayers. This site is great for learning about other running experiences and helpful advice, but you can also feel the strong spiritual aspect behind this site.

Okay running today I had to run on the tortured treadmill because we were experiencing thundershowers when I woke up. I mean it was pouring and blowing hard. I really hate treadmill running. I would rather sit through a boring work section meeting all day than run on a treadmill. But I ran 5.3 miles, and a couple of minutes at a 5:30 pace not too much because of the taper.

I need to at least get in 30 miles this week before the marathon. It really bothers me not being able to run as much with a taper, almost depressing.

One benefit about taking these antibiotics is they should help my cold.  Right now my breathing feels like about 65% when I run because of the sinus and stuffy nose.  I want to go in on Saturday at a 100%.

Today I ran 4.2 easy miles in a light rain.  It's rained continuously for the last 30 hours now.  The temperature was 38 degrees when I started running which I loved.  I'm definitely a cool weather runner.  I don't like the heat which I'm sure most of you don't.  Running performances are definitely better in cooler temperatures.

I'm still not over this cold and stuffy nose I think I'm just going to have to live with it and do the best I can for Saturday.  I plan on driving up to Rexburg around noon tomorrow from work.  It's only 70 miles from Pocatello, and I'm staying at Days Inn.  Then I'll find a place for dinner and just relax for the rest of the night.  I'm going alone, because my wife Saturday is working at our church booth at the park for family fun day selling hamburgers and hotdogs etc.  This is a fun raiser to help build our new church.  Then my oldest daughter is running the 5k  Pocatello Heart Beat and Sole city race on Saturday.  My youngest just wants to walk the 5k race with my mom.  I actually won the 10k portion of this race last year, it's a brutal course.  You really have to be prepared for the uphill.  The last two miles of the course is uphill.  But I had an advantage this is one of the routes I like to run all the time, because you have a major down hill in the beginning than a major up than it repeats this pattern for the rest of the course, so it makes a good training course.

3  easy miles today.   I will head to Rexburg around noon today.  Will see how things go on Saturday.

Today I ran the Teton Dam Marathon and it was a race to remember for bad reasons. Going into a race you of course want to feel like your fitness feels good and your health is good. Unfortunately, in this one I couldn't get over my cold and sinus issues. More on that later. I first arrived in Rexburg, and picked up my race pack and toured the city. I've actually never been here before, and the funny thing is I only live 70 miles away. The city is very easy to get around, and I found where I needed to be on Saturday morning. I went to the potato bake dinner the night before on the free marathon meal which I've never eaten a potato before a marathon. I met a lot of nice marathoner's.

Race morning I woke up with a terrible headache, sinus drainage, and coughing, which I thought my antibiotics would take care of, well not a chance. I met Clyde and Jeff at the pick up area, and what great guys they are and incredible runners I hope to be at their running level someday.

As we started the race I really felt like I was in a groove except I had a hard time breathing, because it seemed like I was coughing every minute the whole way. The first half I finished in 1:22 something and I really felt good other than the coughing. But on mile 16 my stomach felt awful really hurting bad, because I needed to go to the bathroom bad. I asked the aid station when was the next porta putty and they said "we don't know, very encouraging (they also didn't hand me water correctly at two aid station in a row, where I didn't drink any water for, 4 miles . Well I started the hills on mile 16 and my stomach felt terrible. Half way in mile 18 I went off course and ran behind this grain facility and had to "Brown Code". I looked at my watch to see how much time I wasted doing this and it ended up being close to 3 minutes ( you can see that below in the pacing chart). The worst part I had to find some grass and you can guess the rest. I felt really great after this except the course elevation chart online is inaccurate and there's more hills than the map details. Clyde mentions this too in his race report. This was disappointing when your try to figure your pacing strategy. I started cruising down mile 20 and turned the corner and there was another hill that I wasn't excepting. It slowed me down and the rolling hills began.

Then after mile 21 I developed a really bad side stitch that didn't go away until the end of the race. Every time I would try to speed up it would just kill and I had to slow down and I had to alter my stride (this has never happened to me before and the only thing I can contribute it to is probably all the coughing I did just jolting my insides so much). The last mile my side hurt so bad I felt like I was crawling, and finally the finish (2:59:32).

I'm really disappointed how the second half went, and I can only contribute it to I wasn't feeling well enough to run this race, and my immune system broke down. After the race I ran to the restroom six times with a stomach ache and did a "code brown" each time. My stomach was killing. Finally about an hour and a half later there was nothing left in my body to go to the bathroom. I drank plenty of water during the race... I just think my immune system broke down. But no excuse I should have toughed it out and tried to run hard in the ending miles.

I talked with both Clyde and Jeff after the race, and stayed to support them getting their medals.

I don't know when I will run yet, but I know going into this marathon I really wasn't that focused on what I wanted to achieve with everything going on in my personal life. But 2:50 would have been nice, but it just wasn't there today.

I think I will do Des New Marathon on July 24. The downhill isn't really hard on my legs, and I ran this one last year and felt good. Then I will run Pocatello and TOU. But I think I'm going to take three days off to make sure I'm over this cough and my immune system is built back up.

The best part of the trip was meeting Jeff and Clyde they are great individuals and runners. Fast Blogs did a good showing today.

One thing I think I will work on in my running is more tempo miles in my long runs. This race has made me even more dedicated and I would seek any advice to become a better runner. I would also be interested in others diets before the marathon or leading up to it.