I will take some ideas from Melissa for an “end of year” post and reflect back on 2009 and then focus on what I am planning for 2010.

Family Changes

2009 marked the 3^rd birthday of my oldest daughter, Mia.  She is a wonderful girl who has me completely wrapped around her fingers.  The year also marked the 1^st birthday of my youngest, Sadie.  She is an independent spirit who will be giving Mia hell in the coming years, I am sure.  Parents turn the other cheek when it is payback, you know.  My wife, Jenn, and I celebrated our 5 year Anniversary.  My sister, Jenny, and her husband, Chuck,  had their first baby, a boy named Cai and he is so adorable!  See Melissa’s post on her experience being there with them.

Weight Loss

In the beginning of 2009, I started my weight loss journey.  At the peak, I had lost about 40 pounds, but have slipped off since.  During marathon training I actually saw a weight gain, which I have heard can happen.  For the entire year, I lost about 30 pounds.

Running/Triathlon

In January 2009, I could not run a mile.  I started the Couch 2 5K program from PodRunner Intervals and ran my first 5K with Melissa in February.  I was hooked.  I went on to run a 4.1 mile race in April, my first triathlon in May, a 10K in June, off-road triathlon in July, international distance triathlon in August, a 211 mile relay run in the mountains of North Carolina in September and a Marathon in December.

Hiking/Camping

2009 was a bit of a slow year in this department.  I did manage to make the MitchellWinter trip with Melissa, Jeff and Chris.  I also got up to the Linville Gorge for a weekend with Andrew and Chad.  I was able to incorporate camping before a couple of triathlons.  I hope that as the kids get older, I will be able to take them places that I haven’t yet been able to.

Special Places

You have followed some of my new special places this year, and I appreciate you all bearing with my strange sense of humor!

2010

I hope to continue the weight loss journey in 2010 and to increase my physical ability.  I have already signed up for 4 triathlons including a Half Ironman in November.  This will be my biggest physical challenge of my life and I have a long way to get prepared for it.  I also look forward to another year of milestones with my wonderful girls and my beautiful wife!

I will also be focusing more on Mitchell Winter with only 22 days until our Annual Winter Assault on Mount Mitchell!

First, let me say that this was an amazing experience.  I don’t know if the next thing that I accomplish will have the exact same feeling, but I hope it is close.  I am not one to get too emotional to the point of tears, but after I crossed that finish line after high fiving most of my friends and family that came to see me, I was just overcome.  I don’t think I actually cried, but I felt like it and my eyes did water, but it could have been because I was freezing too.

For those that want more details, here are the events as they happened:

Friday night, Jenn and I drove to Charlotte to check into the hotel that Colleen works at and hooked us up with a good rate and free parking, the Crowne Plaza.  When we got there, I called Jeff and when he answered, he sounded just like the guy we could hear in the next room, in fact, he was the guy in the next room, and Melissa was on the other side of him.  We went over and spoke to them for a bit and then Jenn and I went to the Convention Center to pick up my race packet and to get some dinner.  Jenn wanted Fuel pizza, but I had planned on not eating that late.  Well, once I smelled pizza, I wanted some.  We brought it back to the hotel and I managed to only eat half a piece and water.  I went to bed around 10:00.  I tossed and turned all night and maybe got 2 hours of actual sleep.  I finally got up around 5:00 and jumped in the shower.  After the shower I went ahead and got dressed for the race and then went to Melissa’s room to see how she was doing.  Chris went out to find coffee and came back with extra hotel coffee packs.  Not the best, but caffeine none the less.

We walked to the start area and Melissa went to the bathroom in the convention center.  She must not have realized what time it was or how long the lines were going to be because I finally left and went to the start line at about 7:46.  I joined a mass of people and waited for the start.  They were a few minutes late, but when they said go, I started my watch timer and stood there and waited for almost 2 minutes before I could actually move.  There were more people than I could have imagined.  I saw Jeff as I ran by him and he snapped a picture.  At that point, I figured Melissa had gotten to the start and would eventually catch me.  She did for the record, but neither of us saw the other!

I was feeling very good for the first half of the race.  Pace was spot on and my body felt great.  The second half started fine, but around miles 19 – 21, my body started to say, “what the hell are you doing!?”  My calves started to cramp and my knees were sore.  My feet hurt and ankles too.  I stopped and stretched a few times, but when I did it almost made them cramp more.  I walked through a few water stops, but the last several miles went from 10 min/mile in the first part of the race down to 12 – 13 minute miles.  I had to quickly abandon my 4:30 goal time.  Now I was aiming for 4:45.  When the 4:45 pace group passed me, I tried to keep up, but the cramping returned.  When the 5:00 pace group passed, I was determined to stay with them.  I had about 3.5 miles to go.  We hit a tough hill and I had to stop and stretch again.  My legs were just toast.  they continued on and I thought to myself, “well at this point I know I can finish.  That’s what matters now.”  And that’s what I did.

Highlights of the race:

The guy leaning on a car holding a wooden paddle that said “smile if you need a spanking”

The guy who ran the entire marathon in a Santa suit.

Seeing Crystal, her husband, Ryan and her mom, Karen just before mile 18, cheering me on, holding signs that said “Go Kevin!” & “Keep TTP’n”  The second sign, I am told, was Brandi’s idea, but she couldn’t be there because she was sick.  Hope you are better, Brandi!

Seeing a vacant port-a-john right after mile 18 when I had to pee.

Running through the “wall” in NoDa.

Seeing the sign that said “Sign of Encouragement” next to a sign that said “The End is Near”

Giving high fives to kids on the side of the road that came out to cheer us on.

Seeing my other sister, Jenny, running towards me about a mile from the finish.  She kept me company as I finished.

Seeing Karen, Ryan, Crystal, Jeff, Chris, my Mom and Dad, Colleen, Jenn, and to my surprise, Mia and Jenn’s parents as I approached the finish line.  Truly a feeling of elation.

As I said, I will get pictures and video up on my next post when I can.

Read Melissa’s post here.

This picture from Melissa's post captures my feeling pretty closely

The chiropractor is just awesome and I would recommend him to anyone having any sort of back problems.  For that matter, I think a lot of problems we experience in our entire body could somehow be related to our spines.  Without him, I really don’t think I would be at the start line tomorrow.

The wonderful folks at TrySports recommended that I wear a long-sleeve tech tee, with a short-sleeve tech tee over it that I can remove if I get too warm.  They also suggested a wicking, breathable hat (I have an UnderArmour Cold Gear hat that I picked up at REI) & breathable gloves (bought those last night at TrySports, Saucony gloves with a mitten cover if needed, thanks Jenn!).  They told me that my plan to wear UnderArmour boxer jocks and running shorts with compression sleeves should suffice for my legs.  I will also carry my Nathan Speed 2 water belt with both bottles containing multi hour amounts of Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem, 5 Hammer Gels and a coin dispenser full of Hammer Endurolytes.  I will of course run with my Garmin Forerunner 310XT so as to record every mile and the heart rate monitor so I can count the calories burned for the TrySports calorie burn contest.  Guess how many calories I will burn and the closest will earn bragging rights!

Melissa posted this already on this blog post, but I thought it worthy enough to show again.  Just looking at the map is still staggering to me.  I  think it would be even worse if I hadn’t run the course preview runs a few weeks ago.

Thunder Road Marathon Course

I am so excited that Jenn, Jeff, Chris, my Mom and Dad, Crystal, her Mom, Ryan, &  Brandi will be there with Melissa and I.  Crystal, her Mom, Ryan and Brandi are running the Jingle Jog 5K and I would venture to say this will be more of a Frosty 5K than next month’s!  So sorry that you can’t run with us, but next year, you will rock it!

I haven’t yet blogged about this, but after a short 3 mile run last Tuesday, my lower back hurt so bad I could barely move by Tuesday evening.  When I got home, Jenn said, “You can’t run a marathon like that.”  And she was right.  I needed to do something.  She suggested that I call her chiropractor, Dr. Adam Cooper, ASAP.  I called the next morning as soon as they opened and he agreed to see me later that day.  After taking X-rays, he determined that my pelvis was off alignment and with all the running, has caused major muscle imbalances in my lower back and minor imbalances in my upper back.  Apparently, when your pelvis rotates, it makes one leg shorter than the other and curves your spine to one side.  When that happens, your upper spine will compensate in order to keep your head directly above your pelvis.  What that meant to me was I was in a lot of pain.  Well, I am one week into treatments and I am almost completely pain free.  I was able to run 6 miles on Saturday and 3 miles yesterday.  Saturday’s run was a little painful, but yesterday’s was almost normal.  I am going back to Dr. Cooper today and tomorrow and, fingers crossed, I will be able to finish my first marathon in a respectable time.

If there weren’t enough challenges in training for and actually running for 26.2 miles, the weather forecast for Charlotte on Saturday is “A chance of rain or freezing rain before 1pm, then rain likely.  Cloudy, with a high near 40.  Chance of precipitation is 60%.”  I can’t think of worse weather to run in except for maybe sunny, humid and 100 degrees!  Oh well, it will make for a good story right?  And perhaps it will be good training for Mitchell Winter…

Update as of 2:48PM 12/9/09:

Saturday: A chance of snow and freezing rain before 11am, then a chance of rain and snow between 11am and 1pm, then rain and sleet likely after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 40. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Update as of 8:35 AM 12/10/09:

Saturday: A slight chance of rain after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Apparently, they can’t make up their mind, but this sounds better!  Even though it will be in the mid 20s at the start, at least it will be dry!

Tomorrow I will attempt to squeeze in a run in the afternoon.  I will try for six miles.  I may even run with Jenn and the girls. 

It may take some time for the computer to get used to this, or possibly I need to get used to it.  So far it has taken longer to dictate this post than would have to type it!  Still pretty cool though.

I have also decided to run 12 miles on Saturday so as not to possibly injure myself.  At this point I don’t think that I could train anymore that would be beneficial and not risk injury.

Now I’ll start talking in a normal voice and see what it types.

Style really know what I’m going to say you’re a winner notice: rock I will even remember what I said in an mv be very very very very strange and am watching a-commercial right now and it’s not run again by and saw and it’s always someone, in eNews 20 funny find funny funny, funny funding of us know

OK that is enough.

Also, some of you are wondering where my weekly weigh in was.  I truly was just strapped for time and frankly forgot.  I might move the day to Saturday, when I should have more time.  So I weighed myself on the Wii today and I came in at 159.1 pounds.

The best thing was giving a good effort, relatively pain free (a little sore in my right knee) and finishing with a 10K PR of 55:35.

The crew (Brandi, Karen, Ryan, Crystal and I) - ready to rock!

Crystal & Brandi before startBrandi bringing it home!

Brandi rockin' her first 5K!

First 5K in 30 minutes! You go girl!

Karen heading to the line!

All smiles!

Great job Karen!

Me heading in!

I was trying to pass this guy the whole race!

He took off in a sprint and I couldn't catch him!

It's all good, still a PR!

Ryan & Crystal (she's behind him) about to fight it out

Ryan & Crystal starting full out sprint!

Ryan blocked her out to take it!

Karen & Brandi after race

Group after race

Group after race photo by London (Brandi's 3 year old daughter)

Brandi London & Crystal after race

After the race in the car minus Karen

Crystal in the car on the way to the race and wearing $400 sunglasses!

Ryan & Crystal

Karen & Crystal

Also, this weekend, I was fortunate enough to be able to give back to my fellow runner/multi-sport athlete community and volunteer at a local event.  It was the Inaugural Recon Double Trouble Off Road Duathlon at Anne Springs Close Greenway.  I had a blast working the event, but it takes just that – work.  There were several volunteers and they could have used more.  To all of those that compete in these types of events: volunteer all you can.  It makes the event not only more enjoyable, but even possible.  I hope I helped out with some great photos as I became a sort of unofficial event photographer and even helped hand out awards at the finish.  I provided all 1275 photos that I took of the event to the race director, Marcus Barton, so that he could use at his discretion.

I wanted so bad to race this event, but given the injuries I sustained after the BRR and Cane Creek, I have decided to keep my races to running only in an effort to continue on and finish my first marathon in December.  The next two Saturdays are preview runs so I will see what I am up against!

On a running note, I ran 4 miles at lunch yesterday, but I felt extremely tired.  I don’t know if it was the 10 mile run on Sunday or if it was just an off day, but I hope to feel better tomorrow.  Have a great Wednesday everyone!