Here is the final video of this whole process. I’ve been working on it for a while now…
I’ll be journaling throughout the duration of this process. Please check in on me from time to time! Also, take 5 minutes to look at my fundraising page and if you have 5 dollars to spare, a lot of people would beneft from it.
You can learn more about Team in Training at their website, teamintraining.org … and more about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at their website, LLS.org.
June 2nd, 2009 – Day 129. Mission completed. I don’t even know Where to start… the experience was nothing short of amazing. We flew out of Milwaukee Friday morning at 8:30. My two younger brothers drove me down and I was there a little early. I sat in the airport and played the “I wonder who here runs marathons” game until a lot of people wearing Team in Training gear started showing up. A connecting flight from Pennsylvania came in around 7:45 or 8… and about 35 Team in Training people got off that plane, so between our two teams we were making some pretty good noise in the terminal.
The flight was nothing special… a touch too long. I found out my laptop has a very short (2 hour) battery life. That didn’t help. We landed in San Diego at about 10:30 their time and were shuttled to our hotel. That day was pretty much our own… but I knew I wanted to get enough sleep because I knew I wasn’t going to be sleeping Saturday night. We did go to the convention center as a team however where we needed to check-in and register for the race. There was an expo where different suppliers were giving out information and free samples of their products. Interesting to see, but I think I got a little sick from trying all of these products that were suppose to be energy boosters. (shrugs) I took a walk around the immediate area of our hotel. There was a mall and some restaurants, nice area. The apartment housing directly behind the hotel was ridiculous.
Saturday morning and afternoon was our sight-seeing time. San Diego has a fantastic trolley system that is cheap and easy and it gets you around the city pretty efficiently. I took the trolley to Old Town and Little Italy… two smaller communities in the city. Loved them both. It helped that it was a Saturday morning so there were Farmer’s Markets in both areas… I could have walked around the city all day. In Old Town, I got into a spanish conversation with two ladies making churros in the street. They spoke english, but I told them I wanted to talk in spanish… and we were both laughing at eachother the entire conversation. They were laughing at me becuase my spoken spanish is broken and not very good. To them, it was like talking to a 4 year old. I was laughing at them because I knew they were laughing at me and I was absolutely ok with it.
I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the TNT pasta party that night and headed over to the convention center at around 5. Walking into the banquet room was awesome. Every coach and mentor from team in training that was there had lined the doorways leading in and were cheering and yelling and making a bunch of noise as we entered. You kind of felt like a hero for a second… it was cool. 2,200 participants plus some friends were there for dinner and we listened to some inspirational speakers and some honored patients. It was a cool night. We had a short team meeting after that to go over details and called it a night.
Race day! To be honest, I wasn’t nervous about running. I was more nervous about making sure I had enough but not too much to eat and drink and whatnot. We were on the bus at a little after 5 am and were shuttled to Balboa Park where the start line was. So many people! It was crazy. The race started at 6:30 am. My brother’s shuttle from his parking lot was delayed a bit, so he was late to the start. He ended up starting his race at about 6:45 or so. More on him in a bit. We started running and I had one of my running coaches starting with me. We ran together for the first two miles and then he fell back to find another TNT runner. The race was fairly smooth until about mile 19. I had started the first 7 or 8 miles way too fast, but I realized it far too late and by mile 19 or 20 when I was suppose to start kicking in the saved energy.. I had nothing to fall back on. I just couldn’t get my legs back for some reason so the finals 6 miles were pretty tough. The finish was pretty cool. You come down this final stretch with a grandstand full of people on one side and people lining a fence on the other… pretty neat.
My older brother Nick ran this marathon with me, and I will absolutely concede that he ran a better race. He didn’t go through Team in Training like I did… so while I was getting instruction and tips for the last 4 months from a coach, he has been doing everything on his own. I was being pampered all weekend in a nice hotel and getting shuttled conveniently to the start line… Nick had to drive over an hour that morning to get there. He must have gotten up before 3 AM! I also had a lot of help on the course. When you run with Team in Training… you wear a distinctive purple singlet or jersey that gives you many allies on the course. I had my named taped on the shirt, so every corner I turned I had TNT supporters yelling my name and cheering for “The Team”. I also had trained coaches from TNT littering the course, so whenever I started to hurt a little, somebody in purple was there almost immediately diagnosing whatever was aching. Now, I’m sure people were being supportive to everyone running, so Nick was probably getting the standard “You’re doing great! Keep it up!” yells… but when he rounded a corner and heard “T-N-T … T-N-T” … it probably didn’t give him the same boost it gave me. I also was lucky enough to have one of my coaches from Wisconsin find me at about mile 23 or so, and he ran with me the rest of the way. It helped a lot. Nick was on his own the whole way. I also kind of felt bad throughout this whole process. The only difference between what I did and what Nick did was that I had some fundraising to do. Nick will admit that I trained more consistently than he did… but I had the schedule and the time to do so. Nick was working about 40% more hours than I was … and he has a family. The only other commitment I had throughout this whole ordeal was the Brewers. But I sometimes felt like people were giving me all of this attention and asking about my training and all this … and didn’t seem to know Nick was going through the same thing (granted having a website and a blog and advertising the fundraising swung that attention my way… but still). Factor all of that garbage into the equation… and I still can’t fathom that he and I both ran for the better part of 4 1/2 hours and we ended up finishing within 150 seconds of eachother. That is silly. First time runners, first ever race, and our splits were identical. I thought that was awesome. I’m not surprised though… anyone who knows Nick knows that he could have probably stepped outside today and ran another marathon in under 5 hours, two days later. For a point of reference on how I’m feeling… it just took me 25 minutes to get the mail. I’m glad he came and ran it as well though. It’s just another hidden society that we are now part of. I can now look at Nick and give him a nod and he knows that I am saying … “Those last 3 miles really hurt”… and he’s the only one of my “core” who knows what it’s like to run for 3 1/2 hours… then come around a corner hoping for water only to find some people offering you salt packets. He and I were also the only two idiots in San Diego that day who ran the full marathon in pants… and not running pants! (Yes, we both probably did it to be difficult… and yes, we both take a strange pride in that).
The race is awesome through 20 miles… and you are loving every second. Then it hurts and you are hating yourself for doing this. Then you finish and respect yourself in a way you never have before. It was awesome.
I’m happy I did this on so many levels. Self-respect being one, the TNT experience was unbelievable, minor things like getting into shape and being disciplined enough to stay on a diet played a part. It was a pretty intense process and I have a new found respect for so many people who do this … whether it is just one time or if it is a lifetime hobby. I’ll be paying attention to the papers whenever marathons are run from now on. It means something to me now.
It’s funny how things can change you in such a short period of time too. I’m now looking into joining the Fox Cities Marathon on Sept. 20th as a TNT alumni. I kind of feel like it’s an additional family that I get to be a part of. Let’s see how many more of my real family I can get to run with me this time 
I’m going to archive this blog now. Tuck it away and come back to read it every now and again to remember that once upon a time I was run over by a 26-mile truck and it only took me 4 hours and 38 minutes to get to my feet.
If anyone is even semi-interested in running a marathon, half-marathon, or wants to take a 100-mile “century” bike ride… please look into Team in Training. The fundraising is a challenge, but a fun challenge. You will respect yourself in so many ways if you do it and do it honestly from start to finish. TeaminTraining.org. You won’t regret it.
Thank you Jeremy Coenen for setting up April 1st, thank you Brittney and Annie Metz for letting me play at “The Bar” on the 17th, thank you Appleton Winter Farmer’s Market for letting me panhandle your entrance every weekend for two months… and thank you to all of you who donated to LLS on my behalf. I’m a better person because of this nonesense.
The world will forever be full of more good than bad. Sometimes you have to fight it out of people and sometimes you have to fight it out of yourself… but it will always be there, and it wants to be there. Let it take over!
Peace and Love … forever and ever and ever.
Jake
Fundraising update: $3,953 of $3,900 raised. (101% raised)
Training update: 129 of 129 days complete. (100% complete)
May 20th, 2009 – Day 120. Nine days until I fly out to San Diego. I’m ready. At this point I’m just trying my best not to fall and break anything in the next week. A few weekends ago I ran just over 20 miles and it was pretty encouraging. Not necessarily the time but how I felt throughout the whole run and the fact that I ran the second 10 miles faster than I ran the first 10 miles. I still have a week + left of training… but I’m going to take it easy. I’ll run tomorrow and I’ll go for my last “long” run (10 miles) on Saturday morning, and then probably jog Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday before taking it easy for the big day. I’ve also decided that whatever time it takes me to run this marathon is a secondary concern to having fun running it. We got the route today in the mail and we are running by some pretty scenic things: SeaWorld, The San Diego Zoo, Petco Park, downtown, etc… So I am going to enjoy running the race rather than running to try to beat some time. Tonight I am off for our Team in Training “send off” dinner. Getting my racing gear among other things.
This entire four or so month training and fundraising period has been a pretty cool experience. I’m not going to get into too much right now and it worries me a little that I’m already becoming reflective when I still have the single hardest day ahead of me yet. Still, I am hoping to post some sort of journal entry before I fly out next Friday… and then I’ll definitely have a post-marathon wrap up journal before I archive this entire thing when I get back.
Thanks for reading.
Fundraising update: $3,953 of $3,900 raised. (101% raised)
Training update: 120 of 129 days complete. (93% complete)
May 3rd, 2009 – Day 103. So last Saturday I got up real early and was down on the east side of College Ave. by about 7 AM. My running coach and a few TNT teammates were there and we set off to run on what ended up being a 16 mile run. I had read that it was suppose to rain a little that morning… so I had brought along a sweatshirt, because I didn’t feel like being stuck to a wet t-shirt while I ran. Well, turns out the “little rain” turned into about a five minute downpour in the streets of Neenah/Menasha/Kaukana. Still, it wasn’t the rain that bothered me from there on out (the rain actually felt nice); it was the fact that my sweatshirt now weighed 15 pounds. *sigh* It was a good run for me though up until the very end when my legs decided 14.5 miles were enough and threw an absolute hissy fit over the last mile and a half. I kept trying to tell them that they better shape up, because if they were not happy over 16 miles then they were in for a real bad surprise in about a month. They didn’t calm down though so I knocked them out with some biofreeze that a teammate had brought along. They behaved adequately the rest of the day. Hopefully just the threat of biofreeze next week is enough to keep them in line. I have to run 22 miles next weekend, which is the longest run I have scheduled before the actual marathon. I think more than just my legs will be hurting after that one.
April 22nd, 2009 – Day 92. Wisconsin weather remains crazy. After a tiring (see: awesome) weekend, I was ready to get back into a normal pattern again and have a good running week. Of course, waking up Monday morning to an inch + of snow on the ground made me a little angry and very confused. Waking up Tuesday morning to the same thing just made me angry… Of course, the snow was gone by noon on both days but running in the rain and cold wasn’t really what I was hoping for. Nonetheless, I see the sun today and apparently we are getting warm weather pretty quick; so I will give Mother Nature only a glancing dirty look for the nonsense she threw at us this week.
I had to cut down on Sunday’s longer run, I wasn’t feeling all that great… so it didn’t make sense to compound that. I have a 15 mile spot this Saturday which may have to get pushed back to Sunday because Saturday is a full day for me. I just found out we are going to have GU gels on the San Diego course, and I found some of those at “The Running Co.” the other day so I get to try those out this weekend. Running gel is basically a gel packet of vitamin A & C, potassium, and a garbage load of carbs stuffed into a 2 oz, 100 calorie packet. You swallow this down with water every hour or so when you are running and it is an energy boost. Gel/runners = spinach/popeye.
The fund raising, while not over, has met it’s mark. The number given to us to try and reach at the beginning of the season was $3,900. I just made my own spot $4,000 just to make it a prettier number. But with the money raised from the benefit show last Friday… we went over the $3,900 mark which was the assigned goal. Thank you everyone x100. With that said, the fund raising doesn’t stop until May 30th or so, so if you are still able to give anything… please consider it, it is a great cause.
Have a good week. Pray for the Brewers… we need a turnaround.
Fundraising update: $3,953 of $3,900 raised. 101.4% raised.
Training update: 92 of 127 days complete. 72.4% complete.
April 13th, 2009 – Day 83. I had these big plans to run back home to my parent’s house this past Saturday, but to do that I knew I was going to have to buy some kind of “belt” that could hold both water and some gel packs… and I just didn’t have the time to do it at the end of last week. It is a little over 12.5 miles from my door to theirs, so that run is going to happen… possibly this next Sunday? But instead of running home, I ended up running 15 miles in circles around my neighborhood. I didn’t exactly run them consecutively; I ran 5 miles, took a 10 minute break to stretch… then repeated that two more times. My splits for the three runs were 47, 42, and 46 minutes… at or around 9 minutes a mile… which is where I think I want to be once race day hits. I’ve read the average time for men to run marathons is 4 hours 32 minutes… and a 9 minute pace would put me just under 4 hours for the race… which would be great. A lot of people have been asking me what I would consider a successful time… and I have always said that I just want to finish… which is true. But I guess the three tiers of “success” for me come race day are going to be 1) Finish 2) Beat the average time for men (4 HR 32 MIN) and 3) Come in under 4 hours. I would be content with just the first, happy with the second, and ecstatic with the 3rd. *shrugs*
I’m playing at “The Bar” this Friday night, which is looking like it’s going to be a great night. My cousins have been awesome in setting it up and promoting it. There is going to be a $3 cover at the door and all of the money is going to LLS to help me hit my fund raising goal… which is inching closer and closer to the $4,000 mark and my goal. It’s going to be a fun night, you all should stop on out.
Fundraising update: $3,159 of $3,900 raised. 81.0% raised.
Training update: 83 of 127 days complete. 65.4% complete.
April 5th, 2009 – Day 75. Absolutely crazy week in an absolutely good way. I got in a full week of running and the 8 miles yesterday were strong, which is a nice change from “struggling to finish” that I have been doing a lot of as of late. I am excited for this Saturday, because I have a 14 mile run that will give me a good indication of where I am in my training. Hopefully I am still excited after Saturday!
April 1st was awesome. I woke up to 17 donations in my inbox and was absolutely confused. I opened the first one (from my older brother Nick) and just figured that TNT accidentally duplicated the email and sent it to me 16 more times. The next donation was from my nephew Dominic (amazing considering he is 6 1/2 months old) … and then I realized that these were 17 unique donations. So then it took me about 12 seconds to realize someone must have said something to someone and there was a mass email somewhere. I called home and got the runaround from my sister, who just laughed and told me to enjoy the day…
24 hours and roughly 42 donations later… my donation total had jumped a little more than $1,600… more than doubled what it had started the day at. Thank you to everyone who donated thus far and on that day. It was a lot of fun checking the website throughout that day watching the total rise and a lot of people are going to benefit because of it. Thank you. I am also 98% sure who I am to thank for sending the emails out to everyone to make this happen and given our Ron Paul history… I’m assuming the term “MoneyBomb” was used in there somewhere. At some point I will compile a list of people who have donated thus far, and post it on here; but for those interested you can go to the link above to my TNT website and look at the sidebar.
It was a good week, thank you. Enjoy the start of the baseball season! Go Crew!
Fundraising update: $3,024 of $3,900 raised. 77.5% raised.
Training update: 75 of 127 days complete. 59.1% complete.
March 28th, 2009 – Day 67. Tough week, time wise. I was able to run Tuesday and then short on Thursday… but wasn’t able to go at Wednesday. Also, today is suppose to be a 14-16 mile run and the one hour block I am sitting in now is the only free time I have had or will have all day… so that long run will have to wait until tomorrow. That pushes next week’s schedule back a little bit, but I should be fine. Still, I’m thinking that I’m going to struggle the last few miles of tomorrow’s run, I know that the last few miles of last week’s 12.5 miles were really tough and adding almost two more miles on to it for tomorrow is going to be a chore. Throw in the fact that we are suppose to get a snowstorm tonight and my run tomorrow is going to be a bit of work.
Good final day today at the Farmer’s Market. I am fairly sure I have a show coming up on April 17th to raise money. I’ll let you know for sure in a few days.
Fundraising update: $1,546 of $3,900 raised. 39.6% raised.
Training update: 67 of 127 days complete. 52.8% complete.
March 16th, 2009 – Day 55. !!!! Exclamation points to start off the post. That’s how I feel. Well, kind of. I am actually very sore. Yesterday I had my longest run of my training so far… 11 miles. I didn’t really know what to expect because my knee was stiff yesterday beforehand.. and it hurt for the first mile or so … but it really loosened up after the first mile and I was able to RUN for the first time since about Valentine’s Day. I’ve been jogging/babying it since then and haven’t been able to go better than 75%-80% in almost a month. But I ran the full 11 miles and was EXTREMELY happy with the time it took to get it done. I actually did a full Tiger Woods fist pump when I walked in my front door and looked at the clock. Anyway, I’m confident that I’m on the down slope of whatever the problem was with my left knee, and I think that training should get better from here on.
I’m also happy to announce that the sun has discovered Wisconsin again for the first time since about 2003 it seems. I had to wear shades for the first time while running… which was nice. Dear Spring, thank you for coming. Please stay. Love, Jake.
Fund raising is very slowly starting to become a concern for me. I’m not yet panicking that I’m not going to get to my goal… but my training is a little more than 40% done and I’m only about 30% of the way to my mark. I’m slowly falling off pace… so I’m going to have to try to come up with another regular fundraiser I can roll with. Playing Saturday mornings at the Farmer’s Market has been wonderful… but I’m afraid it isn’t going to get me to my goal by itself.
Enjoy the weather everyone. I certainly will!
Fundraising Update:$1,218 of $4,000 raised. 30.5% raised.
Training Update: 55 of 126 days complete. 43.6% complete.
March 5th, 2009 – Day 44. Slow return I guess. The past week or so has been up and down. I did go in and buy a new pair of running shoes… which seem to have completely healed the achilles problem. I got a pair of the Nike Triax 12’s… which are the same shoe I was running in, just upgraded. My old shoes were pretty worn, so I think that was the problem with the Achilles, not enough support. I was really excited when I ran for a few days and my ankle held up… but then the next problem came. I have diagnosed myself with “runner’s knee”. I looked it up online and it says it is common with first time runners who are approaching 40 miles a week for the first time, which is right about where I’m at. I ran 7 miles or so this past Saturday morning… and my knee was pretty weak afterwards. It isn’t excruciating pain, but I can definately feel it. Just to the right side of my left knee. Dang it! The remedy for this (according to the websites I’ve looked at) is ice, iboprofen, and time. I guess I just have to ease my way through it. *sigh* Ha… so the fight continues I guess.
I’ve also had a few downer weeks as far as the fundraising goes, so I’m going to have to pick it up in the next few weeks to make up for it. I’m a little off pace.
Fundraising update: $1,033 of $4,000 raised. 25.8% raised.
Marathon update: 44 of 126 days complete. 34.9% complete.
February 24th, 2009 – Day 35. Not good news this past week. I tried to jog late last week and my foot tightened up right away. I don’t really understand it… because it doesn’t hurt to walk on, but as soon as I break into any kind of jog, I feel it right away. I haven’t tried to run on it since about Friday, so I’m hoping the last 4 or 5 days have done some good? I’m also going in this afternoon to buy a new pair of running shoes and have my running checked out because I think both of those things have something to do with it. I’m going to try to run on it again tomorrow… and hopefully I can start making up for the lost time. *Sigh* I don’t like being hurt.
Fundraising Update: $929 of $4000 raised. 23.2% raised.
Marathon Update: 35 of 126 days complete. 27.8% complete.
February 15th, 2009 – Day 26. I am injured!… only sort of. I know my coach had told me going into this that when you train for a marathon you are going to tweak things, and the obvious advice was to just stay on top of it and be proactive and reactive when it came to dealin with injuries. Well, it took 26 days to do it… but my body finally fought back for the first time, and it chose my left achilles as it’s opening argument. I won’t say I hurt it… but I felt it tighten a little towards the end of today’s run… and it is sore right now. We’ll see how it feels in the morning. I am blaming it right now on my running shoes, because I am still running in my old pair and I know they are long past their due date. I am just waiting for my tax refund to come in before I can commit to buying new “gear” … because it’s a semi-serious investment. Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day and I think my legs need it. I was on my feet yesterday for the better part of 22 hours… and today I was hurting a little bit. Not sure if that has anything to do with bumming my lower ankle or not. *sigh* Spirits are up though… people have been generous in their donations thus far… thank you.
Fundraising update: $847 of $4,000 raised . . . 21% of goal completed, 79% remaining
Countdown update: 26 of 126 days completed . . . 21% of days completed, 79% remaining
February 10th, 2009 – Day 21. I am not eating anymore junk food for the rest of this training. Yesterday I was at my parents and I gave myself an “off” day from the diet I’ve been on. I thought it was a fair idea since I’ve been very good about it thus far.
Wrong.
I only had to run 3 miles today and (besides the first few days when I had to run in -10 degree cold) it was the worst run I’ve had so far. I was stitched up the entire time. Couldn’t get above a jog the whole run. Three painful miles and I decided that I’m going to be the healthiest of people when this thing is done… cause these daily runs are going to only get longer and I can’t do that again. So in short summary, today’s lesson is I’m eating healthy until AT LEAST June 1st. *sigh*
February 3rd, 2009 – Day 14. I felt really good today. I mean, it was only 4 miles … but it was as smooth a run as I have had so far. I find it funny that I am waking up every morning to check the weather throughout the day to see when it may or may not get above 10 degrees that day so I can plan what time to run. I think my biggest obstacle come May is physically running in San Diego weather, which will probably be 25 degrees warmer than anything I will have run in up to that point. We had our first “group run” this past Saturday. We ran for about 40 minutes around a YMCA indoor track. I’m not a big fan of running indoors or on treadmills… I need the scenery to change. Anyway, our workouts just increased from 1-2 to 2-4 miles on weekdays. We are on this schedule for a week or 10 days or so and then it jumps again. Fundraising update: $311 raised, $3689 to go. 7.7% of goal raised. Have a good week everybody.
January 28th, 2009 – Day 8. It’s crazy how after this weekend, today’s run in 6 degrees (-4 wind chill) actually seemed pleasant. It’s also amazing how fast you can get in “shape”. (Yes, I am using that term loosely) The first day I ran I had to go two miles and my lungs were burning a bit when I was finished. One week later and today’s two miles felt like I just went out to get the mail. Of course, in a few days when I jump to 4-6 miles a day I will be here complaining that I can’t breathe again… so take it for what it’s worth. I’ve also lost 4 pounds since day 1, which is kind of crazy cause I didn’t know I had 4 lbs to lose. I’ve been trying to gain weight for the longest time, with no results… so this marathon thing is counterproductive in that sense. *Sighs* Anyway, I’m working on some shows in the near future to raise some money towards my fundraising goal. Hopefully that “amount raised” on my fundraising site will begin going up at a faster clip in a little while. Ok, that’s all…
January 24th, 2009 – Day 4. I imagine this will end up being one of the worst 5 days of training when I look back at everything. Today was four miles, which was fine… except for the 2 degree, -14 wind chill that was the outside. In all honesty, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be… but 1/3 of my run was into the wind, which was a treat. I need a ski mask apparently. I’m really glad I ran today though and didn’t try to skip it, because the rest of the winter season can’t get worse… and running from here on out won’t seem as bad. Fundraising update: $125 donated. $3875 to go. I’m hoping that I’ll be playing next Saturday at the Fox River Mall to raise money… I’ll let you know if it is going to happen. This week I’m going to hit as many businesses as I can to try and see if I can get any help from them. Off to a good start in both areas… feeling good!
January 21st, 2009 – Hey everyone. This little portion of the site will be where I will keep you all updated on how the training is going and updates on the fundraising and whatnot. Today was the unofficial “kickoff” of my training. I ran 2.5 and kept it at a conversational pace. My brother will most likely be running the marathon with me, so I’m hoping to be able to match schedules with him so we can run together. Please keep checking back to see how things are. It’d be cool to hear from you.
Jake