Looking Down the Road

First Post!

So since this is supposed to be about me and my ultra running dreams, maybe I should explain a bit about how I got this crazy idea...

Once upon a time I was a third classman (sophomore) at VMI. Probably one of the more stressful years there, which was probably the reason I started smoking cigarettes. It wasn't very much, maybe one or two cigarettes a day, but still, shouldn't have done it. Anyways, I was doing that and not exercising very often, which led to weight gain and a slow run time. I was barely passing my PT tests. So on a cold Friday, January 28, 2005, watching the snow come down after dinner and going outside for my nightly cigarette, I started thinking about how big and slow I've become. I put out my cigarette and got into my PT uniform and found my way down to the gym, which I had never been inside before. Found an empty treadmill and started running. An hour and 15 minutes later, I had hobbled my way 5 miles on that noisy treadmill and kicked my nasty habit (for the most part, I only grab a cigarette if i get really pissed off).

Sitting at home in Pittsburgh the next spring break (I didn't have any money to go to anywhere warm) I was watching TV, and this Gatorade commercial came on, or some kind of sports drink, where these athletes came on and said "this drink helps me hit homeruns, score touchdowns" stuff like that. This girl comes on and says "this drink helps me run marathons", then another guy comes on and says "this drink helps me run 100 miles". They show the girl again and she asks "did he just say 100 miles!?". I sat there in amazement. I was considering training for a marathon since at the time I thought it was the limit of endurance and that was it, nothing further. My first thought was that 100 miles was crazy. My second was where do I sign up?

Fast forward a year. I joined the Marathon club at VMI and ran the Marshall University Marathon in Fall of 2005 (crazy to think that my first marathon was in the nation's fattest city!). Then I did the Ocean City Maryland Marathon in Spring 2006 (sprained my ankle six miles in, but still finished!). In Fall 2006, I did the Marine Corps Marathon and completely loved it. Thousands of people to help you to the finish, amazing sights, outstanding support from hundreds of Marines lining the sidewalks. So far its my favorite marathon. I also did the Air Force Marathon, but that one was a disaster. I had a bad timing chip so I didn't get credit for the race, and the line I got herded into ran out of medals. I waited for about a half hour with a few other people who didn't get them, but we just ended up leaving, since it was freezing cold! I probably won't be doing that one again. In January of 2007 my family went down to the Florida Keys for a vacation. I had a crazy idea of running from Marathon (fitting enough) to Key West, 50 miles. It took me 10 and a half hours and about 40 bucks of Mountain Dew and crap food, but I did it. It sucked that it would be my final long run for a while...

After the Keys ultra, my knee started hurting when I ran. I had to skip out of the marathon club for my last year at VMI. I graduated and commissioned into the Air Force, and moved down here to Eglin AFB. After a few months of my knee killing me while I was down here, I finally got it looked at by a real doctor (as opposed to the one at school who said it was just a strained muscle). Turns out I had bone cancer the entire time. I went through three rounds of chemotherapy and four rounds of radiation therapy and surgery in Spring 2008 and now I'm finally back to normal. Since then I have finished the Marine Corps Marathon again in Fall 2008 and now I'm looking to register for the Florida Keys 50 next May 16 (Now that its an offical race!)

I start training for it tomorrow. I'm gonna increase the miles up slowly, then follow this training plan I found on the internet. I forget where I found it, if I find it again I'll post it, but basically you just put in the race date and it calculates a training plan for you. Pretty cool, and since this is the first ultra that I'm gonna actually train for, its a good template to figure out what works for me and what doesn't. Anyways, tomorrow is either PT tomorrow or a two mile run after work (since I don't know what we'll be doing at PT, sometimes we don't do anything longer than a lap or two then a ton of calisthenics.

So that's the book about my life, or at least my running life. I promise that the majority of the rest of my posts won't be as long and will contain actual running...



A note on my blog's title: I'm not a lonely person, I have tons of friends, a loving girlfriend, and I never feel completely alone. It's meant to convey the thought of how even though my friends support me, they still think I'm crazy and have no desire to follow in my footsteps. I personally don't know anyone else who is an ultra runner, just a few internet friends. In my ultra running journey, its just me and a long and lonely road...