Weekly Amount:
Running = 21 miles
Biking = 72 miles
Swimming = 5000 M or 3 miles
Total Amount: 96 miles
Overall Amount:
Running = 320 miles (95 miles to San Francisco)
Biking = 1,052 miles (1,718 miles to New York)
Swimming = 81,200 meters or 46.7 miles (61 miles to San Diego)
Total = 1,329 miles (1,441 miles to New York)
Accomplishments:
The Running Brothers, our Dad, Larry and our cousin, Beau all participated in a golf tournament this past Sunday. I had not been golfing since December and I know that my brother has not been playing much either since he has been too busy with work. However, I knew that I would not have to be performing at my best for this golf tournament as many of the people who were entered had no idea how to play golf.
We made our way slowly around the golf course and on the first par 3, on a 180 yard hole, I pulled out my 6 iron and “stroked” a beautiful shot that hit the green and rolled up towards the pin. The ball landed on the green and slowly rolled towards the hole. I raised my hands in the air anticipating the ball dropping into the hole for my very first hole in one. But, the ball didn’t drop. We drove up to the green and saw that somehow the ball had rolled directly behind the hole by about two inches. How it didn’t drop, I had no idea.
We skipped a few holes, in order to pass some of the beginning golfers and made up for those few missed holes by playing some holes twice. Once we passed those golfers, it was smooth sailing for us. On another 180 yard par 3 on the back nine, I stuck a 5 iron to 14 feet 10 inches which was good enough to win one of the closest to the pin prizes, a free round of golf for me and a friend at El Prado golf course.
On the 17th hole, a straight par 5, my brother and I narrowly missed hitting the green in two and after missing our short eagle chips, settled for birdies. When the round was over, I had shot an 81, while Rocky shot an 88. Both great scores for us. When all was said and done, I had the second best score of the tournament, losing by one stroke to the first place guy. All in all, we had a great time golfing and were happy to get out and play some golf with family and friends.
After our round of golf, we played a soccer game, too. We ended up winning 4 to 1. It was an easy game and an easy victory.
Our Mystery Challenge had to be postponed in order to enter the tournament. Expect an update on the date to our next Mystery Challenge.
After my first step into the second half of the marathon, I had run further than I ever had before and, immediately upon crossing the half-way point was an enormous hill. I mentioned earlier that I had developed a strategy to my running. It was to walk up hills and to walk and make sure to get enough water at the water stations. After beginning to walk up the hill I began to feel some immense itching going on downstairs, something that I had never experienced before. And man, it hurt.
After making it over the crest of the hill, I got back into jogging. The searing pain in my crotch region distracted me from the pain that I was feeling in my knees so it was a rather unpleasant, but fortunate distraction. I kept up my jog and was going strong, still stopping at the water stations to grab a drink of water and actually being able to carry on a few conversation with one runner who was from Chino Hills as well. We ran alongside each other for at least a mile or so until I broke away from her.
One of our Twitter followers predicted that I would “hit the wall” at mile 18 or 19 . . . I hate psychics! She predicted correctly that my running ended at mile 19. I tried to run after the water station at mile 19, but my knees wouldn’t let me. I simply could not run. I was not winded or tired, but my legs gave out on me. I ended up walking the last 7 miles.
Two more complaints I had about the Orange County Marathon were:
When I came down the final straight-away, I saw my Mom waving her hands and cheering me on and this is when I broke into my jog. As I ran down that final straight-away, I waved to all of those who came to support me and my brother, Mom, Dad, Lacey, Cindy, Jacklyn, Danielle, Claudia, and Dusty. We had some amazing support and I tried my hardest to run across that finish line and I did, barely passing my 80 year old competitor at the last possible minute. I had completed my first marathon in a little over 5 and a half hours.
Weekly Amount:
Running = 20 miles
Biking = 70 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 92.5 miles
Overall Amount:
Running = 298.5 miles (116.5 miles to San Francisco)
Biking = 980 miles (1,790 miles to New York)
Swimming = 77,200 meters or 49.2 miles (61 miles to San Diego)
Total = 1,329 miles (1,441 miles to New York)
Accomplishments:
To those of you that were interested in participating in the May 22 Mystery Challenge, it has been postponed. My brother and I will be entering a golf tournament instead.
The golf tournament is the 5th Annual Richard H. McKinnon Memorial Golf Tournament: which will be held on Sunday, May 22nd. We will be playing at El Prado Golf Course and are looking forward to taking home the trophy . . . or at least having a good time!
Our Mystery Challenge will be rescheduled for another date in the near future. I will keep all of you informed on the new date.
Weekly Amount:
Running = 19.5 miles
Biking = 68 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 90 miles
Overall Amount:
Running = 278.5 miles (136.5 miles to San Francisco)
Biking = 910 miles (63 miles to Seattle)
Swimming = 73,200 meters or 46.7 miles (63.5 miles to San Diego)
Total = 1,236.5 miles (1,533.5 miles to New York)
Many people had given me tips on how to run a marathon. Many of our heroes provided comments on www.runningbrothers.com and others did so on Facebook. My Dad even had a few pointers to share with us after talking to some of his running friends, including our fourth hero, Greg Hardesty. In response, I developed a game plan as to how I was going to conquer the Orange County Marathon.
I ran slowly with my brother at the start of the race, talking to him along the way and after a few minutes of blabbering on to him, I could tell that he was struggling already, most likely because he was sick. A couple of times he did mention that he wasn’t feeling well and we were only on mile 1. I stopped talking, thinking that he was exerting energy just listening to me and just set my own pace. He kept with me for about 2 miles until we made it to the first water station.
For the most part, the Orange County Marathon was well planned, but I did have two complaints and the first complaint was at the first water station. At the first water station they only had two tables with a handful of staff pouring water for the runners. At the beginning of the race, thousands of runners are coming through that point and most were stopping for water, it took several minutes until we made our way to the front of the line to get water.
From there, I began to pull away from my brother. The second watering station was a little more organized although not much more and upon leaving I saw my brother coming down to the hill. I waved to him as I finished drinking my water and continued on my run. That was the last time I would see my brother until the end of the race.
Before the race I did all kinds of stretching, especially on my knee, but for whatever reason it took a long time for me to get warmed up on my run. My calf muscles and the muscles that went up and down my shin were extremely tight. I actually don’t think I warmed up until about the 5th or 6th mile, but once I reached that point, it was smooth sailing . . . at least for a while.
The race weaved in and out of residential communties and briefly along the beach which was pretty cool. We had many supporters who came out to cheer us on. At around the 5 mile mark (I’m guessing), my brother’s girlfriend, Jacklyn and her sister, Danielle cheered me on and took pictures . . . it sure was nice to see some friendly faces. At the 9-mile mark, Jacklyn, Danielle, my Mom, my Dad, and my sister, Lacey were there to show their support and take some high quality photos.
Zeb High-Fiving Dad at The Orange County Marathon
At the 11th mile is where the half-marathoners split off from the full-marathoners. I did not realize how many more people were doing the half-marathon than the full. When I crossed that threshold, it seemed like much more than half of the people made the turn to complete their half-marathon. The halfway point was marked with a large blow-up gateway type thing along with some inspirational music. I was half-way done with my marathon and with one step into the second half of the marathon had run farther than I had ever run before.
My brother and I play soccer twice a week. We play indoor soccer on Thursdays and outdoor soccer on Sundays.
Yesterday, we were talking about different sports and wondered which sport would be the best sport to get involved in that would also help us train for the Ironman and for our marathons.
Here are the questions:
And don’t say darts.
My brother picked me up at 4:30 AM Sunday morning. Yes, you read correctly 4:30 AM. Luckily, we were being dropped off by my brothers girlfriend, Jacklyn otherwise we would have had to arrive in Orange County at that time. Which would have meant being picked up before 4 AM. Typically, I don’t wake up before 9 AM.
I couldn’t sleep the night before, which is usually the case when I have something important planned and need as much sleep as possible. For some reason I get this overwhelming sense of anxiety and can’t sleep the night’s when I need the most sleep, although, I did get 3 hours of sleep which is better than usual.
Jacklyn and her sister, Danielle, our personal athletic trainer drove us to Fashion Island in Orange County and dropped us off shortly after 5 AM on Sunday morning. Thousands of people were making their way towards the start line of the race and we followed along side them. We made sure to hydrate before the race and drank a couple bottles of water, and with the drinking of water came the need to urinate. It looks like many others had the same idea of hydration because the lines for the toilets were LONG. Fortunately, the organizers of the Orange County Marathon had the forsight to order a ton of port-o-potties so we were able to find one with a small line and did our business.
We then made our way to the start line. The Marathon was scheduled to start in waves and according to our paper work, we were placed in wave two. When we looked at the signs strewn around the marathoners; however, we soon realized that there was no wave 2. The actual waves were broken down into letter, A, B can C as far as we could tell so we jumped in with the B’s.
Our bib numbers were pretty sweet as everyone who was running the race and spectators alike commented on our good fortune. Mine was 2222 and my brothers was 2221. Also, when we signed up for the race we were allowed to sign up as a team, so, my brother signed us up as The Running Brothers which was largely displayed on our bib numbers.
I was very active Twittering in the days just before the race and one person actually recognized us from our tweets, which was very cool. He introduced himself as Cory and asked which one of us was training for the Ironman. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask what his Twitter name was so we could be sure that we connected with him after the race, so Cory, if you’re reading this . . . let us know.
One last thing I need to mention was that my poor brother came down ill in the days preceding our marathon and was not looking good on the day we ran the marath0n. It was awful timing to be sick on that day and I totally would have understood if he didn’t want to even attempt the race, because in all honesty, he looked terrible. But, being the trooper my brother is, he attempted to run the race anyways. Not only that, but he never made any excuses and secretly I think he even was trying not to let me know that he was sick. Running a marathon is hard enough, but doing it while sick and running in 80+ degree temperatures . . . now that’s what I call guts.
The first wave went off around 6 O’Clock and the second wave began around 15 minutes later. Just before we were about to begin my brother turned to me and said, “I’m not sure this is such a good idea.”
I looked back and him and smiled . . . I knew he was right.
Zeb Running at The Orange County Marathon
Weekly Amount:
Running = 19 miles
Biking = 66 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 87.5 miles
Overall Amount:
Running = 259 miles (156 miles to Las Vegas)
Biking = 842 miles (131 miles to Seattle)
Swimming = 69,200 meters or 44.2 miles (66 miles to San Diego)
Total = 1,146.5 miles (1,623.5 miles to New York)
Accomplishments:
Zeb Runs to Vegas