Gump Goes to Washington!

Wow what a way to see the sites in Washington-- the Gump, 30,000 of my closest friends, and a few thousand Marines!   I have to say, if you only plan to run one marathon in your life, this is IT!

The name of this marathon is “The Marine Corps Marathon”, but it’s also called “The People’s Marathon” and what a marathon! I kept thinking that any minute I would wake up and all this will be a dream.

As I write this, I’m over whelmed with emotion. I had the honor of running in The Marine Corps Marathon, and the privilege of carrying a scroll to honor loved ones, on behalf of the National Hospice Foundation and Hospice of Dayton.

Once again, this marathon is now history. It amazes me how it seems like forever to get to this, and how quickly it’s all over.

Here are the goals for this marathon:

1         FINISH!! – did that.

             Enjoy the day  - Beyond belief!

             Finish in less than 262 minutes – actual time 239 minutes.

(The big dream was to go sub 4hrs – MADE IT!!! 3hr 59min. 34 sec.)  

Well now for some fun stuff – Pictures from Washington!

It was COLD that morning. It had been snowing when I went to bed. I was not looking forward to running through snow.  

This is what it looked like when I was heading in for the night Saturday—a wet, snowy evening.

This is the exit from the subway station at the Pentagon. I actually took this picture Saturday morning when I did a dry run, to see how long it took to get from my hotel to the starting line – 45 min subway ride, and two miles to the starting line. (My actual starting spot was a good ¼ mile from the starting line; this was and is a BIG marathon)

I don’t have too many pictures of the actual marathon; spectators really can’t get too close to the starting area.  I took this picture as I walked from the Pentagon to the Runners Village. The grass was crunching as we walked across to the security check point, but NO SNOW!!!  

As you can see, this is not the actual marathon. I took this on Saturday. Beside the Capital being behind me, to the left is mile marker 18 and to the right is mile marker 19.  Running the National Mall was just unbelievable; the whole way was lined by masses of people. There is no point in bringing an MP3 player to this marathon; there is nowhere the crowd is not cheering.  (This was SO MUCH nicer on Sunday-- the sun was out.) 

This is kind of a geek picture. This is the actual course tracked by my Garmin GPS during the marathon. (Actual distance was 26.66 mile, from starting gate to ending gate, with a lot of weaving through runners.) 

 This is the closest to a photo finish picture that I have. My wife’s cousin Chris took this picture as we were getting ready to cross over the Potomac River after leaving the marathon festival.  I want to send a special Thank You to Deborah Richardson, and her son Chris Richardson, who collected the Gump and deposited him back at the hotel. I don’t think I could have done this without their help

And the last picture-- the “Race Memory.” There are a few things I want to point out. First is the angel, the little white thing up by the Gump hat.  Beth gave me that several months ago; I’ve carried that in my hydration pack, in every marathon I’ve run since June. (You know Beth as “INDYGIRL”).  Next is the Spark Logo, I wore that during the marathon, because without the Spark community it is unlikely any of this would have happened. A heart felt THANK YOU!!!  Finally the Gump Hat-- as of this marathon, the hat is retired; it has served me well.

 
As many of you may know, I ran this marathon on behalf of the National Hospice Foundation as a member of the national running team.  Here are some of the other runners; they are from all over the country.  One thing I found doing this for marathon for NHF-- there is just something about running for a cause that makes the whole experience that much better. 

I would encourage everyone to take your new found health and give something back to the community. You don’t need to do marathons; do what works for you!

Will I be running more marathons? Yes! The first one on the schedule is “JASR.” If you want meet a lot other Sparkpeople, or just run/walk for a cause, this is the place to be, 31 March 2012.

www.race360.com/running/races/detail.asp?eventid=14355

God bless hope to see you in Pittsburg

The Birth of a Marathoner - 6 Weeks to Go

It was the day! 9 months 17 days to the day that I took that leap of faith that I could run a 26.2 miles marathon.  So with only one mile of running to my name at 54 years old on January 1, 2011, I signed up for my first marathon.  After 9 months of training and some 1300 plus miles of running, the dream is reality!

The AF marathon will be special, not just because it was my first marathon, but also because one year ago I worked this very same marathon as a volunteer. It was watching all those people push to do what at the time looked like the impossible that gave me the courage to dream the dream of lifetime. 

That marathon is now history, and I am now a marathoner!  Happy cannot begin to describe how I feel right now. I’m still having a hard time believing I did it! 

As with all my races I had my basic race goals

1              Have fun and enjoy the day – (Yes!!)

2                                  Finish the race - (Yes!!)

3                                  Finish in less than 260 min – (actual time 4hr 12min or 252 min)

      (I was hoping to go sub 4hr, on this one -- I’m saving that time for MCM ;-)

Now for fun stuff Race pictures.

Every person you see in this picture is now an official AF marathon alumnus. 

 From the left McCourt, root4home, johahsadie,billalex70,renla6991,lourie5658

I call this picture “the rookie.” Just think-- this is how I looked BEFORE coffee!

There is no way I could have made it this far without the support and help of my number ONE-Mrs. Gump, a.k.a. Shirley!  Just don’t mess with her before she has her JAVA!!!

This is some of the local Hospice running team, and me.   As you may or may not know I’m doing a marathon for the “National Hospice Foundation” in Washington DC, at the Marine Corps Marathon in October.  I met up with the Dayton Hospice people at the Expo, Friday, and offered to run with their jersey for the AF marathon, to help support Hospice of Dayton.  It was such an honor to do that!

If you have never been to a big marathon, they are REALLY big, so it’s hard to find people. It does not help that it’s still dark out.  I was heading over to the baggage check in area to start dropping my gear to run, and just by chance ran into Stacy.  (Note-- if you ever need to set up a meeting place for people at a marathon, use the “baggage check.” It is one of the few common areas of most marathons.)

This is Amy. I’m pinning angel wings on her.  I joined a pace group for this marathon and Amy was the pace group leader.  I really wanted to try for a sub 4hr marathon, so I joined her pace group.   I didn’t make the four hours.  I was within four miles of the finish, before these old legs shifted to low gear, and just wouldn’t go any faster.  With that being said, I can honestly say I would not have done the time I did without her help.

When you run a marathon, you can only train so much, then it just becomes willpower that carries you to the end.  The local radio station I listen to is Fly 92, whether it be training or racing.  Last Sunday I emailed them and asked for two songs to be played during the marathon. The first was “What a wonderful world”  by Louis Armstrong, in memory of my Dad.  The second song was “Tuff Enough” by the “Thunderbirds”, because I knew that at mile 21, I had a hill to climb. Not only did they play the songs, but right on time.  This is my way of thanking them!

AND for your listening pleasure here they are!

“What a wonderful world”

“Tuff Enough”

Here it is! The finish and one freshly minted marathoner. Boy is that an oxymoron; there is nothing fresh about a guy who just ran 26 miles.  

Now in this picture, I’m actually receiving my race medal.  But what you can’t see is that I’ve fallen on top of a Brigadier General from exhaustion.

Like I said before, you don’t run a marathon without a lot of support and help from the home. This is the family,

Lt to Rt: Ryan, me, Mollee, and Shirley --the whole Gump clan.  (The kids had to hold me up for this picture)

No race blog would be complete without a “race memory” picture-- here it is.

This is what I call the path to success; on this wall are the medals and bibs from all the races so far this year.  If you look to the low left corner you will see “MCM”, that it Marine Corps Marathon paper work!  Look out Marines-- the Gump is heading your way!!!

From the family!

When I decided to do this, there were a lot of unknowns, but what it comes down to in the end is fear of failure. Don’t let fear stop you from living your dreams. 

God bless, and, it is GO TIME for life.

PS) The run counter is now 6 six weeks until MCM Go time!!!

Join the run

http://www.active.com/donate/runtoremember2011/TMcCour4

9 Weeks to go - A + B = WPAFB.

Due to technical difficulties I have been unable to post any new blogs but I have been busy running and writing. I am sorry for the delay and will have the backlog up over the next couple of days.

As of today, it's 20 days and counting until the AF Marathon.  Today was connect the dots day, meaning that for the first time I ran between both Areas A and B of the base, as well as through downtown Fairborn.

  (Wright Patterson Air Force base (WPAFB) is broken up into three areas: B (southern) and A (Northern).  I think C is off to the east of Area A.  Here at the base we just call these “Areas A, B, or C”.)

What a day to run- the weather was PERFECT. Even though I got a late start, the temp was about 75 for the whole run.   The distance covered was 20.5 miles. Because I started with Area A, the Northern section, my time was much better than last week-a full minute faster per mile because the northern part of the base is FLAT.

I think I have the picture of pictures. I always felt that the “Top of World, Ma” picture was the best view from the base.  Well, I was wrong!  I have a picture from area B overlooking area A.  The weird thing about that picture is that I’ve run that hill many times, and just never saw that view because I was always coming up the hill, so that view was to my back.  During this week’s run I was bored, and decided to run my route backward. I am so glad I did.

Ran with “official AF Marathon” jersey again this morning. I’ve been trying to show off the wings. I created a composite picture, to show the wings.

I wanted to get this picture in, because it shows what I call “The Bump”.  Everyone who runs the AF marathon will have to deal with the “The Bump” on the way back to the finish line.  “The Bump” is between miles 21-22 for the full, and miles 8-9 for the half. As you can see, it’s about five stories tall.  It is the last big hill of the race. I ran it today. It’s about a half mile to the top.

(PS) DON’T tell anyone I ran it, because it is part of interstate 844. I’m pretty sure running on the interstate is frowned on. I was hustling to run it and get back on the road again!)

This is the other side of the “The Bump.” When you see this sign, you are in the home stretch, 5 miles out for the full, and 4 miles out for the half.

This was the mid run break. I was still at WSU, and I needed the break. “The Bump” hustle was over a mile. I did it in six minutes, and that was after running six miles. From here it is south to Area B. The access gate was about 2.75 miles away.

“THE VIEW”  This one picture was worth the whole run. This is about 11.5 miles into the run for today.   What you are looking at is the main runway for WPAFB. The numbers indicate the mile markers- the red numbers are for the full marathon and the yellow number is for the half marathon.  That road to the left is part of the course. That “3” is at the gate out of the base. When you run the course, you will be going out and turning to the right on Huffman Road and heading north to WSU.

Well today was the day I picked up the shoes that I will be wearing to both the AF  (17 Sep), and Marine Corps (30-Oct) Marathons.  At this point, have run over 1,300 miles to train for this, and I’m on the third pair of shoes. But after today I have no reason to believe that I will not finish my first marathon come 17 September!

With just 20 DAYS to go, I have two long runs planned, and, as I sit here, have not decided where to do the last runs.   During the week I’m committed to running on the base to get the hill workouts, but I’m still toying with the idea of a Yellow Springs run.

Switching the counter to days now and there are 20 days to the AF Marathon, and six weeks later, it is off to Washington, D.C. for MCM for Hospice.   

Everyone be safe and God bless!! 

Gump

Join the Run: “Live with Honor, Die with Dignity”

http://www.active.com/donate/runtoremember2011/TMcCour4

11 Weeks to go - Columbus Half Marathon

I had a fun weekend - ran the last scheduled race, before the first big one, the “AF Marathon”.  Went to Columbus and ran the “Columbus Half Marathon” by Ultrafit-Usa.  Nicely done marathon, well organized, nice scale, about a thousand runners.  The race was held in Three Creeks Metro Park, on the south east side of Columbus, Ohio. It’s a beautiful park. The trail winds and rolls through the park making it an interesting run.  Of the four ½ marathons I’ve done this year, this was the most scenic race.

The weather could not have been any better for running, low 60s, partly cloudy morning, couldn’t have planned a better day.

As with all races, I had my goals. I try to keep them simple:

               Have fun – This was fun even before the race started.

2           Finish the race – Did that 

          A Time less than 130 mins- Did this one in 114 mins, fastest time so far.

This is a pre-pre-race picture! What I did was drive up to Columbus on Saturday afternoon.  I took my bike, because I wanted to ride some of the course. As it turned out, I did that and then some.  Three Creeks Park may be a metro park but it is BIG.  The ride ended up being 16 miles through the park, and, yes, I got lost once.  This will give you an idea what the course looked like. This was at the turn around point. 

This is Gump and Uche, stopped, at the turn around point.  Uche is my daughter’s boyfriend. He came out and rode through the park with me Saturday.

I was a little worried going into this one. I did not have the chance to do much running before this race.  I’ve had an ear infection that really did me in for over week.   Normally, I run 50+ miles a week; the last two weeks, I was only able to get in 35 miles.   Had some concerns whether I was up for this, but it all turned out fine, best time yet, placed 8^th in my age group.

This is the pre-race picture. The race started at 7:00, this was taken at about 6:00am. My hotel was only about 3 miles from the race.  I did my pre-load at 3:00am for this one and it worked out great.  AND, for a change, had NO problems sleeping before the race.

Saturday turned out to be a really long day. I ended up having to go in to work that morning, so I started my day at 6:00am. I ended working until noon, and then drove to Columbus and did an hour and a half bike ride.  I was so ready to sleep Saturday night!

Not sure if you can tell from this picture, but it was still dark, and there was light rain. I was by myself for this race, so I don’t have too many race pictures.  Unlike my long runs, I don’t carry the camera during a race.

And bang, the race is over; this is me crossing the finish line.  I was happy with the overall time, but I was pushing the last few miles.  The nice thing is, I ran this race the way I planned to. At the beginning I slowed down, trying to stay around 8 ½ min miles. For the first 10 miles, that worked well for me.  This course is rolling hills, so I did find myself doing 10 min miles a couple of times, but I decided in the beginning to enjoy the run rather than running by my Garmin.

This is a post-race picture, with Uche. That photo finish picture, Uche got that.  For the most part, I was solo on this race as Mrs. Gump had other plans for the weekend, so I was truly grateful that Uche came out this morning.

Well, no race blog would be complete without the race memory picture so here it is.  Met some new people there and several are planning to run the AF Marathon. They were doing the same thing as me, getting the last race in before September.  

I have to say I have odd feelings at this point. I keep thinking back to New Year’s Day when I committed to run the AF Marathon this year.  Some of you may not know this, but I started running that day! Talk about crazy New Year’s resolutions!  In the course of eight months, I’ve run four 10k races, and four half marathons, and committed to 2^nd marathon in October for the National Hospice Foundation.    

Not sure if I totally lost it, or just found my thing.   For me running FOR something, rather than to just DO something, has more meaning.   At this point, I just pray I do well enough for Hospice that they will have me back next year.  

Well, the week counter says 5 weeks to the AF Marathon, and six weeks later, it is off to Washington, D.C. for MCM for Hospice.    (Yes, I did miss a week there)

Everyone have a good week, be safe and enjoy the summer!!!

God bless!!  Gump

Join the Run: “Live with Honor, Die with Dignity”

http://www.active.com/donate/runtoremember2011/TMcCour4

13 Weeks to go - Run to Cincinnati Part 3

This was the final leg of the run from Dayton to Cincinnati, and by far the most challenging.  Not because of distance- it actually turned out to be the shortest of the three runs at 20 miles. And not because of the heat, because it turned out to be coolest of the three runs (75-85 degrees).  No, it was because the night before, I attended my 35^th High School reunion, and got a little carried away enjoying some Kentucky bourbon.

Overall, it turned out to be a nice run. To the people of Cincinnati:  that is a BEAUTIFUL section of the bike path going into Newtown.  And to the people of Loveland, what a great oasis. I just love that park there in town.  If you want to just have a great day biking sometime, that trip from Xenia to Cincinnati is just one for the memory book. It’s about 46 miles, but well worth the trip! 

Just had to throw this one in. I know it has nothing to do with the trip, but we can call it the pre-trip picture.  I just had the best time visiting with old (and I mean old) schoolmates.  It didn’t hurt that I’m in the best shape of my life!


 

Like the previous start, we took this picture at the end point of the last run.  The start point was at a place called Kings Mill, but most people would know it better by Kings Island. The path runs right behind the park.  (The thing to note in this picture is the color of my jersey.)

This is just a shot down the path as I was getting ready to start.  Gump Jr. was actually just testing the camera before taking the first picture.  But what you have to remember is that at this point you are looking down 20 miles of path, after a night of “visiting” with old friends. Gump was little green under the gills that morning.

 Loveland, Ohio was the first break, about 8 miles into the run.  Made really good time, because of the early start, and it was still pretty nice, about 75 degrees.  Really love the way the park is laid out in Loveland. I only wish I had had more time to check things out. (Looks like I need to schedule a bike trip.)    

 This is just north of Milford, OH at a really pretty little park along the path. At this point I was 13/14 miles into the run.  As odd as it may sound, I felt pretty good all morning. The only problem I had was an ear problem. I’ve been doing a lot of swimming and I have a minor ear infection.  My balance was off but the good news is it was my left ear. Since I tend to pull to the center of the path it was good for me, but bad for the oncoming cyclers (sorry guys).

This was it, the finish, at a place called Newtown, OH. I did really well, 3hr 30min, covered just under 20 miles, and, for a change, had no issue with heat.  I was TOTALLY exhausted, but I did not get much sleep the night before. ;-)

To see just how far this run was, this is a Google map. The picture shows the whole run from Dayton to Cincinnati; the total distance was 64.8 miles.

On a more serious note, “Why I run”.

I have been asked several times why I’m running for Hospice.  The answer is to give others the same options my father had!  I just don’t know that there is any easy way to die, or to lose a loved one.  But what I do know is that while we are here, we should have the option on how we live our lives, and how we die.

Hospice offers the option for each of us to leave this earth on our own terms.

I’m running for the “National Hospice Foundation” which is different than the Hospice that most people encounter.   The NHF creates the infrastructure for all the local hospices nationwide.   It is the reason why individuals, regardless of where they live, receive the same loving care.

What that means is that regardless of where you live, your donation will help your local hospice as well as hospices throughout the country.

The run of honor that I’m on is designed so everyone who donates, and person they wish to honor, will be honored during the Marathon, in Washington D.C. 30-Oct 2011.

Well, the week counter says 7 weeks to the AF Marathon, and six weeks later, it is off to Washington, D.C. for MCM for Hospice.   

Everyone have a good week, be safe and enjoy the summer!!!

God bless!!  Gump

Join the Run: “Live with Honor, Die with Dignity”

http://www.active.com/donate/runtoremember2011/TMcCour4