26.2

When I first found at I was getting deployed, my only desired outcomes were not dying and coming home with the same number of parts that I left with. The early rumor is that we would be doing full spectrum ops in the middle of Baghdad, and of course I assumed that meant I would be the guy kicking down doors and shooting people in the face. Luckily (for me anyway, the trigger pullers would probably rather be kicking down doors and shooting people in the face) the rumor was widely inaccurate like most rumors in the Army. Other than dodging a few mortars here and there, things here are pretty routine and although I'm in the office around 70 hours a week, that still leaves me plenty of free time. The only problem is that other than the occasional movie and going to the gym, there isn't much to do to fill up that free time.

One thing I've been doing to eat up some of that free time is quite a bit of running. Now, I don't really enjoy the actual act of running, but I do like the feeling I get after a good run and of course it is a big weapon in my war against the damage I did to my body in college. And after college. Actually pretty much my entire life up until this year. One thing I've always talked about doing is running either a half or full marathon. I usually like the excuse of too busy/not enough time, which you can read as too lazy if you so desire. Unfortunately, that isn't really the case here, so in the absence of a good excuse not too, I am hereby announcing my intention to run the Lincoln Marathon on May 6th, 2007. Please hold your applause until the end. Thank you.

For those of you that don't know, the marathon is 26.2 miles aka a really long way. You may be asking yourself why 26.2 miles? Well, it takes back to the Greeks, or the Romans, or some other now defunct civilization, where some dude (Marthones?) ran an important message to his general/king/master and then died. Guess how far he ran? You got it! Okay, I was just going to leave this paragraph as is, but did a little bit of research and found out that most of what I just wrote is wrong. If you want to, you can check out Wikipedia for more information. Go ahead, I'll wait. Or skip it, whatever, it isn't like you paid to read this or I got paid to write it.

The only real negative is that I haven't really built as good of a base as I need, the experts (read the people on the coolrunning message board that seem pretty smart) suggest 30-40 miles per week for 6-12 months before attempting to train for a marathon. I've done between 20-25 the last 6 months or so, which isn't quite as much as I would like. I put my odds at about 50/50 to make it through the training plan without tearing my ACL, 25% to finish without considerable walking, and 10% to meet my goal time. I am shooting for sub 4 hours(9:09 miles) which is somewhat aggressive but doable. Honestly I should say I have no idea if it is reasonable as my long run is 10 miles right now and I have do that 2.5 times at once.

My plan is to do an update on here weekly, primarily to keep myself motivated over the next 18 weeks. I will be less likely to skip my run and play Madden '07 if I know that someone is checking up on me. I'll be following the Hal Higdon intermediate plan, as I thought the beginner plan looked a little too easy in the beginning. If circumstances dictate, I may drop down to the novice plan about half way through.

Those of that you live in the Omaha/Lincoln area will be expected to be present at the finish line and/or random points of my choosing on the course. In case I pass out and die or something like that. I don't want a stranger giving me CPR. Gross. If I make the effort to run for half a day the least you can do is come out and cheer me on. And would it kill you to make a sign with my name and/or a flattering picture of me on it? I didn't think so.

I've also recruited a few friends. Ol' Buddy B is considering making the trip from the Big Apple for his first marathon and JAg has committed to at least doing his 2nd half marathon and maybe his first full if he can make the time. If there are any other aspiring marathoners out there leave a comment and we'll add you to Team Sack. Well, that is all I have to say about that. Training starts Monday! Actually Tuesday because Monday is a day off but you knew what I was talking about. Check back here on Mondays for updates on my plans/goals/hopes/dreams.

Anaconda 10 Miler and Stetson Update

I'm sure everyone back home has been anxiously waiting to find out how the Anaconda (Army) 10 miler went. I am pleased to announce that the race was a complete success. First of all, SSG Johnson decided Friday morning while shaving that he was going to run as well, even though he hadn't really been training. I think he was on the fence a little bit on Sunday, but due to the constant negativity from some of our co-workers that he couldn't do it and he was stupid for trying (I'm paraphrasing here) he was committed by the time we went to bed Saturday. In spite of only running up to 4 miles at once prior, he ran with me the whole way, and it was really nice to have someone to talk with for the entire run. So give Brad a big hand for crushing the 10 miles like a pro. There were over 500 people running, which was about 4oo more than last year, they even ran out of race numbers they had so many people sign up.

As I mentioned before, I was hoping to run in less than 90 minutes (9:00/mile pace). With the help of my trusty Garmin Forerunner (a GPS enable device that gives you pace/distance/time updates by the second), we started out just under 9:00. We actually were able to slightly improve for the first few miles, and were running closer to 8:30 by mile 4. I had thought that due to not having run over 4 miles for about a month that about the 6 mile mark I would start to get tired and slow down, but that didn't happen for me until close to the 8.5 mile mark. By that time we were so close to finishing that I was able to power through it. We came it at 1:25:53, which worked out to an 8:35 pace. To top it all off, I wasn't even really sore afterwards and feel fine today, with the exception of a small blister on one toe. All in all, it was a great event. By the time we finished eating, showering, and getting ready, it was game time for our tape delayed Husker game. We successfully avoided hearing the score and were able to watch at 10:00 am our time. Good performance by the Huskers, I think that anytime you can go on the road in the Big 12 and get a W, it is a good thing. Cosgrove must have read my post last week because he definitely mixed it up with some pressure and even some dime defense. I'm sure that was I was the only one that noticed this and commented on it, so you have me to thank for the defense performance. We've already started emailing AFN to try to get the K-State game picked up. Wish us luck there.

SSG Johnson and I at the finish line.

These medics ran the entire race in this gear. PTs and running shoes are for sissies!

I am also pleased to report that my Stetson has arrived (see previous post here). Our New Jersey unit has a connection with the Stetson guys so we get a discount. Now, it comes looking like an Amish hat, so there is some work involved in getting it to look like a Cavalry Stetson. SFC Kerchal and CSM Hall helped me out. I can't tell you too much about it, that would be like David Blaine giving up the secret to how he levitates. I will say there is an industrial steamer, tomahawks, chicken parts, and horse hair involved, but that is all I can say.

Here is the Stetson. Inexplicably, the Flying Squirrel diagram is still on Hammer's white board, even though it happened like 4 months ago. Obviously he either doesn't have enough to work to do or is holding on this former glory. Because of too many incidents like this, the diving boards are closed, which means we pretty much quit going to the pool.

SFC Kerchal and I looking cool. Sabers ready!

Pain or Pleasure?

As many of you are probably aware, I do some of my best thinking in the shower. It is one of the few places a man can go to be alone for a few minutes. Except for here where you get to shower with 10 of your closest friends. It is not as bad as basic training where you have to share a shower head as we have individual stalls, but they are in a big room and you have to see other dudes naked, which is never any fun. Anyway, I was thinking through my week this morning and had a startling discovery, I have 2 concurrent activities scheduled this Sunday morning at 0600. Hard to believe I know. Here is the breakdown.

First, there is a road race every year in Washington, D.C. called The Army Ten Miler. According to the website it is the biggest 10 mile run in the world, drawing 24,000 participants this year. Here is a little bit about the run from the website:

• 10-Miler Shadow Runs - A number of 10-mile shadow runs are being coordinated overseas to run in conjunction with the official, 8-Oct-06 Army Ten-Miler race in Washington, DC at the Pentagon. These 10-mile shadow runs support soldiers that serve in harm's way and demonstrate the Army bond around the world.Army Ten-Miler Supports Soldiers - All proceeds from the Army Ten-Miler go to soldier and soldier family MWR programs. Read more at Army Ten-Miler Proceeds Help Others.

LSA Anaconda is hosting one of the Shadow Races, which I signed up for when I got back here from leave. Now, I was running quite a bit before I left for home, and was up to over 20 miles a week with a long run between 7 and 9 miles on the weekend. As you can probably imagine, I had better things to do at home then go run, so I only ran a total of 7 miles in 3 weeks. I've only had 2 weeks to re-prepare, and with my body adjusting to the time zone here pretty much all of last week, I haven't put very many miles in yet. But, I can still struggle through and am not necessarily worried about finishing, but probably will have a hard time with my goal of running at 9:00 pace. Usually once I commit to something I like to follow through on it.

Second, as I realized in the aforementioned shower, the Huskers play Iowa State this weekend, and of course the powers to be have scheduled another night game, which means we'll be getting up in the middle of the night at 3:00am Sunday (we started daylight savings time here so we are currently only 8 hours ahead which is really taxing my math skills). BTW, it would be nice if we could have a noon or 1:00 kickoff every once in a while which would be 10:00 our time. Can somebody arrange this for me? After the dismal performance of the defense this last week, I am fully expecting that we'll be in another tight game this weekend. So, around 5:00ish, when I should be heading to the race, the Huskers will be mired in an epic battle with the Cyclones, probably somewhere in the 3rd quarter. Husker football has been taken to another level this year for us fans over here this year, as it is often the highlight of the week and really gives us something to look forward to.

So, you can see my dilemma. I would like to participate in both activities, but probably can't. On one hand, I love my Huskers and that is pretty much the highlight of the week. Plus, there is a chance that AFN will try not to screw us over this week and televise the game and not baseball (jerks). I can say that I would watch the 1st half, and then leave, which would be okay if we were up 28 to 0, but if the game is close at all I doubt that will happen, you know peer pressure and all. On the other hand, I've told people I was going to run and it is one of the things I've been looking forward to since my JAG buddy from Florida that was stationed here told me about it when I first got here. Plus my running buddy and good friend back home did a half marathon a few weeks ago so I have the innate desire to keep up with the joneses so to speak. What do you think????