Saturday, July 17, 2010

SitRep - 18 Mile Style....PRs out the wazzoo

I hit a couple of new personal records today....first, my longest run EVER...18 MILES!! YEAH!! Second, my best 18 mile time EVER!!! HA! I'm not gonna lie folks, it was brutal.....it was hell....it was brutally hell. I had planned to run from my house to my bro Hendo's house and then finish up the rest with him. I was already at a little over 14 miles by the time I arrived at his house. I was hot, dehydrated, and out of water. I can't tell you how good it felt to see him walking down his driveway with a cold water bottle for me.

I was really only planning to do about 15 or so....I was off on my mileage just a bit when I linked up with Hendo and I knew he was wanting to get a run in. So, I drove on. We debated about the distance we would go as we got started...I said, "let's go for 3 and maybe we'll get 4". He said, "we'll do 4". I was struggling...big time. I know I was close to heat exhaustion. I was ready to call it quits at mile 15, but Hendo helped me press on. By mile 17 I was dead...completely drained. My entire body was hurting and I was on the verge of barfing. But, we drove on.

By the time we reached our stopping point, I had absolutely nothing left. I basically collapsed on the side of Hendo's driveway. I woke up to him pouring ice cold water on me....it felt amazing and it certainly perked me up. There's no question, I owe this run to Hendo - good friends give you what you want, great friends give you what you need.

Hard to believe that in about 3 months, I'll be running an additional 8.2 miles more than where I ended up today. Here's to making it happen!!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Independence Day


Today was one of the best Independence Days I've ever had. I had the privilege of riding 32 miles with some of the bravest men and women in our nation's history. My buddy Hendo and I participated in the Sea to Shining Sea bike ride. This is a group of wounded soldiers that are biking across America to raise funds and awareness for wounded troops. Hendo and I biked from Pekin, IL to Normal, IL with the group today. It was an honor....and quite an inspiration. Here's to the men and women that have fought, are fighting, and will fight for our independence.

P.S. Here's a pic of Hendo and I with former US Ambassador to Iraq, Paul Bremer...turns out he's a pretty good biker!!