First Trail Race

On December 8th, I ran my first trail race, The Canyon Rumble Frozen Half. I saw a Facebook friend talk about it on November 29 and I thought what the heck, I can do it. Well, I did. Didn't train for it, so I knew my time wasn't going to be great. But that's ok. Sometimes it's not about the time or destination, it's about the journey. The journey was great. Trail running has a lot to offer that road running doesn't. I ran on trails many times, so I wasn't totally green. Anyway, I loved the experience, and I will be doing more in the coming years. My time by the way was 2 hour, 10 seconds. Not bad for no training and my first trail race.

25th Race and counting

This weekend I will run my 25th race. I'm not one to run a race every weekend or every month. When I started running back March 2007, I didn't think about doing races, I just wanted to run to lose weight and get in shape. I lost about 40 pounds and it hasn't been back. :) I thought that I might run a 5K or even a 10K at some point. Man, a 10K back then seemed so far and hard. Now, I sometimes I run a 10K(6.2 miles) before work. Since then I ran 4 marathons, 2 halves, a bunch of 5 and 10K's. My home office wall has medals and ribbons from races, and bibs from all the races I've done. My mind set is so different from the way it was back then, nothing seems impossible. I set goals to keep me motivated, like last year I set a goal of running 10 miles or more for 2 weeks and the year before I had a goals of running for 30 days straight. All accomplished. Right now, I have a goal of doing some kind of activity of 3 miles or more for 100 days in a row, today was day 87. 13 days to go. I have goal of doing my first triathlon next year! Plus, I still have goals of running a marathon faster, and hopes of placing 1st in my age group would be awesome too! My Road ID badge has a quote on it that says "Keep On Running" and I plan to for as long as I can.

Still running..

Well, it's been over 3 months since I posted something on here. Not much has been going for me as far as races. I have just been running about 20 -30 miles a week. Since June, I have been doing lots of hiking to some great old places and a few new places too.

Newport Marathon-6/2/2012

This journey started back in January with a new motivation to run a sub-4 hour marathon. Training alone puts all the pressure on yourself. Getting up early, running after work and spending most of my weekends to train. I ran more 20+ milers between March and June 2012, than all of my previous 20+ milers combined. I felt ready! Running the Eugene Marathon on April 29th in a time of 4:01:36, I knew I could achieve my goal! Then, Friday May 25th came and my stomach started to feel ill. I thought it was something I ate, but no it was a stomach bug. I spent Memorial weekend laying low, hoping this bug will pass quick. By Tuesday, 5/29, I felt better. Whew, I was in the clear, I thought. Wednesday came and oh crap, I started to get a itchy throat, stuffy nose. Allergies? No! A head cold! Damn! I spent Wednesday through Friday drinking fluids, taking medicine, trying to rest as much as I can. Saturday morning came, marathon day! I still felt sick, in fact my wife though I had a fever. Great! Never thought about not running, never entered my mind. I'm going to run this marathon!! On your mark, set, go! Off I went! Felt ok running the first half, in fact, my split at 13.1 miles was 1:58:45! I can do this, I thought. Mile 14 or so came and head started pounding, strength was starting to go. Come on, keep going! I pushed and pushed, I couldn't doing anymore and I had to slow my pace. Walked through water stations, then I had to start walk, running. I still had about 9 miles left.... Mile 21 came, come on you can push it for another 5 miles.. This time my mind was stronger than my body, it wanted to go and go hard. My body on the other hand, couldn't. Headache got worst, body felt like it was going to give up, knees stated to get weak. Damn it! You need to finish! Mile 25, I'm there! I didn't really care what my time would be at this point, I just wanted to end this. I heard this lady say ".4 miles from here!" and then I saw my brother in law, Jeff. "Jan and everyone is on the left" he said. Dang, I need to be strong for them, I'm almost there! Mile 26! .2 miles to go, down hill to the finish! Passing a few runners going in the shoot to the finish! Done!! 4:11:19!! Got the glass finisher metal put on my neck. Walked on, got some food. Oh man! Head hurts, body's soo tired. I need medicine for my head bad!! I saw Jan and the rest of the people who came to see me ran. I was glad to see them! Got some protein drinks from Jan and my finisher shirt and started to walk back to the room. Emotions started to hit me, Damn! I didn't do it! A sub 4-hour marathon had to wait for another time. I felt like I failed. Jan said "My gosh, Aaron you were sick. You can't beat yourself up for not reaching your goal!" She's right, but still felt like I failed. After a while, I felt different. Being sick, I still ran my 2nd fastest marathon....more to come.

Eugene Marathon

Well, I ran the Eugene Marathon last Sunday with 15 weeks of training and was able to run a 4:01:36! 31 minutes faster than my last marathon the Three Sisters Marathon last June. The race had pacers and I was able to keep up with the 4 hour pacer till about mile 21. After that I got pretty tired and slowed down. I walked through the last 2 water stations to get as much as I could. Then about with about 1/2 a mile left, I give it all I had left. I was pretty sore for the next 3 days after, but that's good. It's telling me I pushed it. My next marathon is in 5 weeks, the Newport Marathon in Newport, Oregon. This is the race I wanted to get a sub-4 hour! After the Eugene Marathon, I can see it possible!!

Marathon Training

It's been a while since I posted. The marathon training has been going really good! I added a marathon race before my training marathon, the Eugene Marathon on April 29! Long story short, my wife's brother was going to run it, but due to an injury had to bag out. He already paid for a hotel and asked if Jan and I wanted it to spend a weekend in Eugene. I thought since I had a 24-26 mile training run on that day, I would use the Eugene Marathon for a training run. My main focus is still the Newport Marathon on June 2, but the Eugene should be a great experience!!!

2011 Running Year

Well, it was my best year yet in running. Every year I have increased my mileage and have gotten faster in my races. I ran 9 races year, 1 marathon, 1 half, 3 10k, 3 5k and the run portion of the Pole, Pedal, Paddle. I got in 1,901 miles of running, too. Even with an ankle injury, I was able to get close to my original goal of 2,000 miles.