Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Training for a marathon

I'm getting really excited for my first marathon this saturday. I'm running in the Salt Lake City Marathon and my goal is to finish. I don't really care about time considering this is my first marathon. I didn't train as hard as I should have but I never missed my long run for each week of traing. I tried to get a bunch of people to join the B-12 running club for a 18 mile race up on Bountiful Blvd. a few weeks ago. Brandon Adams and I were the only ones that showed up for the run. It was a very hard run with all of the hills up there and it was snowing most of the time. Because of the hills it took us 4:23 to run 19 miles. I'm sure that our marathon this saturday won't be any harder... we will see. I was surprised to see as many runners on Bountiful Blvd as we did considering how crappy of weather we had that day.
I'm hoping our B-12 club gets a bit... or a lot... bigger than it is. We have 34 members as of today and I really want to grow this. I was very happy to see I got an email from Dean Karnazes the other day. He is one of my favorite people in the world and if you don't know who he is I suggest you find out. He gets so many emails and phone calls, for me to have received an email from him talking about running is a treat. I invited hime to be a part of b-12 running and he sent me a message saying he accepted my request and "good to know ya.. keep charging brother." LOVE IT! I hope the race goes well this saturday. Talk to ya soon.

Mick.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter Sunday

What a great day! Last night we had dinner with Terance and Angelica Rowe at their place. He made some great buffalo wings and homemade french fries. He asked us to bring something that went with chicken and we were to lazy to go to the store so we stopped at KFC and bought two things of mac and cheese. I wanted to take a nice dish and act like we made it from scratch but Tara said there was no need... Anyways we got home around 10:30 pm and went right to bed so I felt great when I woke up this morning. I drove over to Wal-Mart before Tara woke up and bought her some flowers, a dvd (Untraceable), and a bunch of candy. I cleaned the downstairs really good and set up a little easter display for her when she woke up.

We hung out around the house for awhile and then headed up to Tara's grandparents for dinner. Ham, Cheesy potatoes, salad, roles, fruit, etc... Yum. I played a game with the little kids downstairs on the pool table. We stood on one side and rolled a ball down to the other side, bounced it off of the far side back towards us and tried to get it as close to our side without hitting the edge. Whoever was closest without hitting got a point. We left around 6:30 and decided to stop in to see my grandma. We talked for awhile about family and Tara was saying how it was funny that her boss, Ed Swanson, just got a clean bill of health from his doctor when he eats as crappy as he does. No Veggies ever. I said "what about lettuce?" Nope not even on a sandwich or hamburger. I said "he won't even eat a side salad with dinner?" No way. I thought that was funny. We went in to grandmas room, laid on her bed, and looked through an old photo album. It was amazing to see her and my mom with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Brown, Tommy Johns, and a bunch more celebrities. There was a picture of Dean Martin with five or six security guards around him. She said no one could get near him. She saw Dean walking down the fairway at some golf tournament and Dean saw Grandma and said "hold it... Come here (to grandma) We need to take a picture". Grandma ran up to him and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. She was so excited. I think that is so cool! Dean Martin stopped everything and asked for a picture with my grandma! Ok... It's time to go watch an eppisode of "Rome" and then bedtime. Long day tomorrow with work and school. My day will start around 6am and I should get home around 10:30pm. Goodnight.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Funny Story

Jake Kilgore called me the other day and said his wife was sick and had to go to the hospital (she’s ok). His two young daughters were getting restless so he decided to take them for a drive to see his friends Grandma Bev. They started whining that they did not want to see Grandma Bev so Jake started building her up saying all the kids in the whole neighborhood just love Grandma Bev and that she always has treats for them. He said she has a big jar of pennies full to the top and a piano that plays by itself. Oh man were they excited to see Grandma Bev now! They pulled up in the driveway and ran up to the door ringing the bell and knocking at the same time. A little Korean kid answered the door and Jake said “Is Grandma here?”

“What?” The boy replied.
“Is Grandma here?”
“I’m not really sure what you’re talking about?”
Jake realized and said “how long have you lived here?”
“About three years”
Jake had no idea Grandma had sold her house at 940 East 1500 South in Bountiful and had bought a Condo about 5 miles away.

Jake said sorry to bother you and told the girls Grandma moved and they would have to leave. Both kids started bawling “We want to see your friends Grandma”, “You promised we could see Grandma Bev”…. Poor little girls had to go back to the hospital instead of cashing in their golden ticket to see Grandma Bev. HA!! I told Grandma that story after Jake had called me and she said to tell Jake to get those girls over to her new place and she’d have a special treat for them.

B-12 Running club. First run.

I’m sitting here because it hurts to stand! My Achilles tendons are so sore. I invited a few friends over to the house yesterday for a 12 mile run. I put together an invitation and called it “Bountiful’s dozen”. We had ten runners commit to the race and each would bring a snack or something to drink for the others. Tara, Jarin, and Grandma helped us out by setting up aid stations every three miles. They were a big help, not only because we needed the re-fueling but it was a big moral boost every time we reached a station. I’m training for the SLC marathon on April 18th and I don’t know how the hell I’m going to run 26.3 miles. Bountiful’s dozen didn’t flow so I changed the name to the B-12 running club. Jeremy Butler and his girlfriend Lindsey came (Lindsey ran only three but she pushed her kid in a stroller). Carter and his new girlfriend Corey (strong runner), Shannon Rosser, her friend Julie, Jarins brother Brandon, and I were the orginal runners of the B-12 club. Jarin and Ryan Knighton were the other two of the original ten that didn’t race.

I went to bed the night before just having eaten a great pasta meal Tara made for us. I fell asleep around 10:30 pm and woke up at 7:00am. I was laughing at myself because when I was trying to fall asleep I kept getting nervous for the race, just like if it was a real event. When I woke up I felt tightness in my left Achilles and knew based on my 7 mile run last Saturday that I needed to do something or I’d never make it 12 miles. I jumped in the car and cruised over to Sports Authority to see if they had something I could put on my leg. They had everything a runner would need except where the Achilles support bands were it had a sign the said “temporarily out of stock”. I asked the worker and he said for some reason they did a re-call on that item. I was out of luck! So I grabbed the closest thing to it, a knee support band. It was about ½” wide and it looked like it would help so I bought it. The first three miles of the race went by in what seemed like a minute because I was concentrating on my Achilles so much. Lucky for me it held up for the entire race and I was able to finish, but I’m sure feeling it today, especially when I try to walk down stairs.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Tara’s mom just picked her up and they’re off to church. I am going to run 6.2 miles and I’m thinking I’ll be as spiritually up-lifted as they will be at church. Running has become my new hobby and when I’m in the middle of a tough run I love to push myself and find out what I’m really made of. I know that I’m going to suffer one of two things; the pain and discipline of the run or the pain of regret, which will last all day, if I stop. Running is solidarity without loneliness and there’s nothing better than completing a long run and feeling the good hurt in my muscles.
I read a book by Dean Karnazes who is a leader to me and I’ve never met him. Dean is someone who leads by example and he is called the Ultra-Marathon Man. He started running in high school and when a coach laughed at him for saying he ran with his heart Dean walked off and didn’t run for many years.
One night Dean was at a bar in San Francisco without his wife. There was a cute girl flirting with him and when he told her he was married she said “I know; I have a place down the street we can go. He was pretty drunk and the girl was really cute and Dean did think about going with her. He told her he need to use the restroom and headed to the back of the club. He saw a door leading to the kitchen and walked through it and out the back door. He only lived a few miles away and walked home to his wife, except he never made it through the front door. He saw an old pair of his sneakers and decided to put them on and go for a run, drunk, at midnight. He ran all night and when he called his wife for a ride she had to drive 30 miles to pick him up. He told her to bring water, food, and their insurance card incase they had to stop by the hospital.
Dean started running a great deal and ended up becoming an ultra-marathon man. He is known for running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. He has finished the Bad Water ultra marathon race nine times. Bad Water is a 135 mile race through Death Valley. His longest run is 300 miles and he just recently ran on a treadmill for 48 hours straight. All that running seams crazy but he is able to handle the pain. He says “Just let the pain settle in and get going” (Ultra Marathon Man). Dean is a leader to me, he motivates me to run and when I want to stop I think of him and keep going.

After my run today I’m going to go take some Valentines flowers to Grandma. We bought flowers for Mel (Tara’s mom), my mom, and Grandma. Tara’s brother, Nathan, is having a birthday party tonight so we are going to eat dinner and have a party and Mel’s house. We bought Nate a blanket and some candy, hope he likes it. I hope we don’t stay too long because they have a bunch of cats and a dog and my asthma kicks in bad when I’m over there. My asthma usually hits when I’m exercising but things I’m allergic to, like cats, make it nearly impossible to breathe. It’s weird because I never had asthma until this year. I went to the doctor and he gave me some Albuterol which is amazing.
I’ve been doing so many reports lately in school and writing in my journal (which I just started today) reminds me of doing my school work. I was going to Weber State University but I transferred last year to University of Phoenix. It’s about double the cost but I like it a lot more. Smaller classes, 5 week courses (which is still full time), and it’s easier to get to from my work than Weber was. I’m going to school with my buddy Carter Dunn. We are both going for our accounting degree, MBA, and CPA. All the school will be hard work but it will be worth it some day. I do like my job now as a calibration technician for Simco Electronics but I don’t want to be a cal tech for the rest of my life.