A True Sherpa = A Real Friend

According to Wiki, "The term sherpa refers to guides for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, particularly Mt Everest. They are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and experts in their local terrain, as well as having good physical endurance and resilience to high altitude conditions." In the sport of running we use the same term to refer to support guides. They have many of the same characteristics of a mountain sherpa. Expert in the sport, possess physical endurance and resilience, and a great guide.

And I had an expert last week. Early on a Tuesday morning, 4am, Wendy Hazelwood met me for my 20 mile training run. Meeting up with someone at 4am to do a long run is really no big deal if both of you have to do the run. Maybe one of you has to go out of town and you will miss your weekend run with your group. So, one of your good friends volunteers to join you early on another day and do the whole run with you. Now this friend has the benefit of getting their weekend back to do something else. It's mutually beneficial.

That is not the case here. I had to leave last Tuesday for Detroit and would be gone through the weekend. I knew the likelihood of me completing a 20 mile run there was very remote. When I told Wendy about my trip and that I would need to run 20 miles early on Tuesday morning, she said, "I'll run some of it with you". Great, I took that to mean that I would see her along my route at about 6am while she's out for her regular run and she would run along side for a while. That would have been nice, but that's not what she meant.

She meant that she would meet me at 4am, 4AM, and run her required 6 miles that day, then she would get on her bike and ride along side me for the remaining 14 miles (not one time did she ride too far ahead of me - how hard was that). It also meant that she would get on gmaps pedometer and vet out our 20 mile course, complete with multiple water stops. Further, it also meant that she would have a supply of Gatorade and hydration drinks for me. Now if that's not Sherpa I don't know what is.

She's done this for many other people, I'm not the special one. She is. It's just her character. And it is this kind of character that I see from many people everyday in this Dallas running community. That is what makes me just love this sport.

So, if you see Wendy Hazelwood over the next several days, do me a favor...walk up to her, pat her on the back and say, "Don says thanks".

Never, never, stop running!

Been A Long Time

How long has it been since I have updated my blog? A long while. Funny, when I started this site I made great claims that I would write in it everyday. I never even once made that commitment. I don't think I've written in it two days in a row. How sad. It's not for lack of running and having little to say. More it is how crazy busy I am. So many things to do and so little time to do them in.

If I were to go back over the last 50 days or so, I could write on so many things related to my running and relentless pursuit of Boston. Plantar fasciitis - still suffering. Physical therapy and cold laser treatments - verdict still out. Couple of 5k races - not as well as I hoped. Got in to St. George - this should be a blast if I can get completely healthy. ATP (advanced training program) coaching - ha, hardly a coach but the program seems very promising. Running the trails in Grapevine - hot, hot, hot but way too much fun (friends, food, and running; a splendid combination).

I have been running faster lately. For that I am happy. I think it has to do with all the fast people I'm trying to keep up with. Or it could be that my legs are finally starting to feel rested from all the marathons I completed over the last 2 years. Whatever it is, I'm liking it.

In fact, I am coaching the Green group for the first time ever. This, I guess, is some level of accomplishment for me. When I started as a participant with Luke's I trained in the Red group. The next year I coached in the Red group. Then, for the next two years, I coached Yellow. Now Green. If I can manage to stay up with these guys I think I'll really be on my way. Maybe I'll get as fast as these folks above. Never, never stop running.

Finally Went to Boston, But Not What You Think

Robert Cheruiyot Wins Boston Again, Amazing!

Start of the 2008 U.S. Women's Olympic Trials Marathon

No, I have not qualified yet. However, the excitement of seeing so many of my friends running Boston and one competing in the Olympic Trials feels almost like I did qualify. Well, not really but you understand the sentiment.

Top 3: Magdalena Lewy-Boulet (left), Deena Kastor (center), and Blake Russell (right).

My weekend in Boston was nothing short of spectacular. It is only fitting that someone who is trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon go to see a race for inspiration. I was also there for the Women’s Olympic Trials and cheered on my good friend Melisa Christian who competed in it and set a new PR. Every year she just keeps getting better.

Dallas must really have a strong running community. I personally know at least two dozen people there for the 112th Boston Marathon. Countless others were from Dallas as well.

I was hanging out with some brave souls before the marathon. We were all on our feet most of the day on Sunday, from watching the Olympic Trials to hanging out at Fenway park where our Rangers got stomped.

Just two seconds after I took this shot of Joan Samuelson she shook my hand, too.

Jim Hazard

Our good friend is suffering from Plantar Fasciitis and is hating life. Since he is the king of practicle jokes and the like. So we thought it fitting to dedicate an entire website in his honor. Hopefully, it will get him excited about returning to running and help to spead his recovery. Please check it out.

www.ibeatjimhazard.com

Amazing Running Friends

I am convinced that the singular best, most exciting, and fun run I have ever experienced has got to be the April 6, 2008 Big D Half-Marathon. I have loaded a picture as a screen saver on my computer saving forever the glory of that 13.1 mile run.

I ran this race with five of my best and fastest running friends. Let me tell you they are really fast. It all started as a pretty simple idea. They, Lindsay Musielak, Biegel Macaraeg, Jim Hazard, Kellye Lubke and John Forbes decided on Monday before the race that they wanted to do an "easy 12 miles" on Sunday. Somehow Lindsay suggested the Big D Half-Marathon.

“Another mile or so is no big deal”, she claimed. So after a series of emails and text messages we all decided to hurry and register for the half. Just to tell you how fast they are, I specifically remember an email from Jim stating we'd run an easy 8:00-8:15 pace. Now for me, that is hard work and I have never run that distance that fast. And that's when it occurred to me, "if I keep up with them then I will set a PR". I had not made the leap on exactly how I was going to keep up with them. I just remember sending out another email stating the facts and the challenge was on.

My friends decided they wanted to pace me and assure me a PR. All I had to do was keep up. Now that sounds like a lot of work for me and it is. But, it is even more work for them. They're each perfectly capable of running in the upper 7's and still call it easy. With this in mind, I thought that we would all start together and after a few miles they would decide it was in fact too torturous to run so slow and take off and leave.

What I thought was going to happen never really happened at all. Instead they made me feel like Lance Armstrong or P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean Puffy Combs, Sean Combs whatever we call him these days. They were my entourage complete with a bicycle manager, Wendy Hazelwood, riding along side and street support, Whitney Cahoy and JJ Pledger, in the form of beer, beer and more beer.

I remember John saying when Whitney handed him his second beer, “wow, I’m gonna be buzzed by the end of this race”. Of course, he was already buzzed enough that he couldn’t hold on to his beer and we heard a sudden splash followed by, “EXPLETIVE” only replace expletive with any curse word that starts with “F”. I was laughing so hard that I forgot we were going up a hill.

Several times during the race I had to shout, “hey stop making me laugh, I’m loosing too much oxygen”. I mean the whole time was filled with jokes, shouting, laughing and the occasional runner’s flatulence. In one of their often noted entouragie activities Biegel, Jim, John, Kellye and Lindsay would trade off forming human shields whenever the wind picked up. Picture this, three of them jolting up front while the other two flanked my shoulders on either side.

And I never even slowed my pace at the water stops. Instead these guys would ask me, “water or Gatorade”, then they’d grab my request and hand it to me while I’d be in full stride in the middle of the road. One daring handoff came at about mile ten...from her bike Wendy handed Jim her Spark bottle. Then Jim handed it to me. Seconds before that Biegel and John coordinated a water handoff from the left.

You have got to know I was soaking up all this attention. And since I had my dark shades on, I bet people running around us thought I was some celeb. We even adopted a few lone runners along the way. Some just excited to be in our atmosphere, others wishing our loud, obnoxious antics would just end.

Somewhere around mile 9 I was feeling pretty labored and this young kid we ran up on decided to keep pace with us. Honestly, every 2 tenths of a mile he would say, “how far have we gone”. Poor kid, maybe he was dying, but for sure he was killing me. After four of these request, I finally said, “2 tenths of a mile farther than the last time you asked”. With that I gave Biegel a nudge in the back so he would pick up the pace. Too bad, I still don’t know the kid made it in.

All in all a great day. We had breakfast at Ozona’s after and laughed even more when Jim and I presented John with his new coffee mug.
My friends saved my life and pushed, pulled and prodded me to a four minute PR over my last PR in Austin. I ran a 1:47 and they even ensured that I crossed first. Can’t ask for better running friends, that’s for sure. Thanks again, John Forbes, Kellye Lubke, Jim Hazard, Biegel Macaraeg, Lindsay Musielak, Wendy Hazelwood (with bike support), Whitney Cahoy and JJ Pledger (the Beer Team).

Hill Repeats - DANG!

This morning was a real workout. First of all, we had fog like you can't imagine. Just driving to the run was an adventure. I even thought for a minute that no one would show because of the dense fog. Finally, I get there and all these other runners are out there getting ready for their run. Amazing.

One side note: They all acted like there was no fog at all, everybody was just standing in the middle of the parking lot. Get out of the way, I can barely see you. Then of course, two minutes later, there I am standing in the parking lot like everybody else just daring you to hit me.

So, after a 15 minute warm-up we (about 7 of us) made it over to one of the steeper hills in the area - yes, Dallas has hills, man. 15 repeats up that hill woke up my legs for sure. The rest of the crew, another 20 or so folks, ran the regular hill route.

Did I mention what happened while we were heading to the hill in the dense fog this morning. It was so funny, but I'm afraid my writing skills are too limited to describe it. I can't even type straight because I'm laughing so much. Anyway, while we were doing our warm-up run in the dense fog of the dark morning we had to make a sudden adjustment to avoid a car. After the car passed I noticed a deep water puddle along the side of the road. I shouted, "watch out for the puddle" as I pointed down. My buddy did what was his best effort at jumping over the puddle and found himself jumping right into it. At first it looked like he was going to just sail right over the thing, but gravity won as per usual. Needless to say, his hill repeats were quite sloshy. ahh, good times.

Never, never stop running.

A Blast at the Austin Half

It is so exciting to set a PR in a half marathon. And imagine doing this in Austin, because most of us know that Austin is pretty darn hilly. Besides that, I did not really train for this race. I love that last statement. We often use it when we need an excuse for why we did so poorly or when, despite our great results, we claim we should have done better. Well, neither is true for me this time around, although I've used it quite often for those very reasons. This time I was running my fastest. I mean, let me tell you something, I was running hard and I enjoyed every bleeding moment of it.

I aged one more year this past weekend and it felt good to know I could still set a PR. I have been losing confidence in my speed lately. I don't know what it is exactly, but my lungs have been suffering during my runs over the last three weeks. That sensation of running a 7 min. mile then looking down at your Garmin to sheer, unrelenting disappointment of an 8:30 pace instead has been haunting me since late January. I'm not sure what it is, but now I'm convinced it's not because I'm getting older.

Anyway, back to the fun of the half marathon. One side note, I met Alan Culpepper twice last weekend in two different cities. He was at the Luke's Locker BGO 5k on Saturday morning and spoke pretty honestly about his running career and balancing the rest of life. He seemed like a pretty nice guy. I even got a photo with him and one of our fast running darlings. Just when I thought I was looking thin I had to go and stand next to this guy. So couple buddies and me headed down to Austin at about mid day on Saturday. It rained the entire trip and we were prayerful that Sunday would be very opposite.

When we got to town we went straight to the Expo (after a quick stop for those famous Jimmy John's sandwiches). I was able to get my goodie bag right away because the lines were pretty short. What I failed to do was bring in my personal chip so I could verify it. When I ran (really I walked) back to the car and then back to the Expo who did I run into but Alan Culpepper, again. With all the confidence of a fast runner I walked right up to him and said, "Hey Alan, remember me?". He goes, "Hey man, what are you doing here? I just saw you in Dallas. Are you stalking me?" The entire time with the biggest smile on his face. We shared a laugh and I told him that we drove down and that we've been here for about 30 minutes or so. He laughed again and said, "man I should have rode down with you guys. We flew down and I'm just getting here. We sat on the tarmac forever in Dallas." I replied, "Oh wow the hardships of being with Nike, huh?". Then we both laughed again.

All that to say he just acted like one of the guys at the morning Park Cities runs. Just a normal, albeit fast, guy. Here's a guy who's won the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon in '04, you see him in running magazines all the time and yet he's very down to earth. It was kool meeting him.

Well, everything had been going well for me this weekend. I met an Olympic runner, I also won a new Ipod Nano at the BGO event. All this on my birthday weekend. It was certain. I was sure to run a great race on Sunday.

Sunday morning was shaping up perfectly. The temperature started in the mid 40s, no wind and absolutely no humidity. I lined up at the start thinking, "this is a great day to run your hardest." After the National Anthem, we took off. I started out a little fast for me, but it still felt good. I knew however, that I would have to run faster than this to set a PR. Of course it took me til the end of mile 2 to really get started. Once that came I never let up. While my trusty Oakley Thump Pro shades were blasting out my favorite mp3 songs, I started thinking to myself about how I might perform. Even though I realized that everyone who came down with me was faster than me, I knew that if I could finish under 1:50 I would be in the 1:40s - genius conclusion, I know. But, if you can say, "Yeah, I had a 1:49", most people here 1:40 and are ultra impressed. So, that was my goal, to be able to impress everyone with a 1:49 finish. Most of the time during the race I really thought I would make it. I ran very strong, kept my pace at the water stations and even managed the hills with patience and determination.

In fact, I was almost suicidal with my effort. You know those days. Those rare times when you don't have to save your body for anything else. I was just free to run harder and faster, just daring injury and exhaustion. Kinda like a 5k race. It was pure bliss. My feet started hurting a bit, reminiscent of my long gone plantar fasciitis. My solution - simply run faster, so my arms were pumping pretty purposefully as I raised up more on my toes. I felt so Kenyan.

My pace was so strong that when I got to mile 7, knowing I had 6 more miles to go I was still feeling very confident. By mile 9 I started feeling the heat of not doing a better job with my math earlier. I was crossing mile 10 when I realized that I would have to run the next 3.1 miles in under 24 minutes. If all I was doing was a 5k that day, it would have been a cinch. But in this case, I was concerned because of those pesky 10 miles I had just finished. The fun part was when I said to myself, "hell, go for it, anything can happen".

All was going well, then came mile 12 at 15th street. "Who put a road in the middle of this freaking mountain." I don't know if my statement was audible and I seriously doubt I used such polite speech. And then those other two little, steep "tease me" hills near the end sent me for a loop. But, that finish. All of you who were there, you know how sweet that finish was. Just about as down hill as you can get - I leaned forward and let gravity take over. A hard left turn into the finisher chute at full steam to a strong 1:51 finish. Oh I loved it - a 4 minute PR. I'll take it. I know I've got somethin' faster in me, but I'll always take a PR no matter how slight.

All my buddies did so well, too. I think they all set a personal best. You couldn't ask for a more perfect setting and my friends took complete advantage of it. Congrats to all of them.

I'm coaching a quick beat group this Saturday. I feel strong and I feel fast - they're in trouble.

Never, never stop running.