Jay's Hope 5K 2010 recap

It was a beautiful morning with the temperature about 42 degrees. I had just got back from running 10 miles with my Galloway group getting our last preparations for the Chickamauga Marathon. I was now warmed up and ready.

Well, I thought I was going to stay warm. NOT! Today was going to be a race that was going to run in memory of my running friend Zack Pruitt who recently died at the age of 14 with a brain tumor. When I ran this race 4 years ago, I ran the 10 K portion of the race and Zack paced me in on the last mile in his socks to help me finish my 1st ever 10K. I was exhausted after that run. I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Zack's family and some of his closest friends showed up to walk in his memory yesterday. It was a day of trying to hold back emotions, yet it didn't happen, even for me.

As I changed into some warmer and drier clothes, I took my socks and shoes off. I tried to warm and dry my feet so that I could put on some mole skin to protect my feet from rocks and glass. Well if you haven't figured it out, I am running barefoot in the race for Zack.

As I approached the starting line, I gathered up with the family and friends for some quick pictures. I was freezing. My mouth was chattering like a 7 year old jazzed up on Mountain Dew. I thought I was on the early stages of hypothermia.

We gathered up to the starting line and I loved to hear people say "He doesn't have any shoes on". That just gave me a reason to let everyone know why I was running this race and to let people know that just because you just in a race, a lot of people forget about the cause of the race.

Boom we off. I decided to walk with the family at first as we left out to go onto the main roads. We had to walk down the cold and wet pavement where the water sprinklers were on at. It was freezing and my feet were HURTING! I got up in the grass to try and warm them up but it was wet also. My mole skin didn't want to stay on. It was coming off so I just left it off. Then I realized that I was the last person on the course. Oh now, I didn't want to hold everyone up today. I looked up and saw my friends starting to leave me so I decided to run slow to try and catch up to them.

As I slowly progressed forward, I caught them and jokingly said "I've got to hurry and up and finish so I can go to McDonalds and get some coffee to warm up". I did not realize that I was not going to stop there. I started to get into a nice slow run. Luckily the road was nice and compact with no rocks and debris.

I started out with a slow running pace about 13 min/mile and slowly got faster as we trekked up the 1 mile uphill. I love hill running. I started passing walkers and then started to catch up to runners and encouraging them to continue on. I would even joke with them and told them they had on the wrong shoes and should change them with me. I loved hearing them laugh when they looked down at me and saw no shoes. As I ran forward others would make the comments about my feet and it gave me a chance again to explain quickly why I was out there which brought on a lot of emotions in some people.

Well we hit the 1/2 point turn around and now it was downhill. I was now at about a 9 min/mile pace and I had not stopped running since the .5 mile point at the start. I was feeling great. My feet were numb to the pain. It was like running as a kid again. I loved it. I know that I had some help from above and that is the only way I was able to get through the pain and cold weather.

As we turned back into Bass Pro Shop, I was running in the 7 min/mile mark and encouraging others not to stop cause were almost there. I could see the finish line and I was thanking Zack for what he had done for today. I love you brother. I hit the finish line and felt like a million dollars. No pain on the little toes. I had family, friends and strangers coming up to me wanting to know about the story of no shoes.

I just hope that I was able to pass along the story and it would help someone out today.

To Bill, Tammy and Kalie: Thank you for allowing me to participate in such a wonderful and emotional event. I had an awesome time that was able to bring back a lot of great memories. I love you all..........

2 weeks to go

We are now 2 weeks to go to Chickamauga. I am so looking foward to this race. It is about time to put things behind me and moved foward. For the last 6 months, I have trained by the books and followed the charts and graphs. I have made the short runs, the speedwork and the long runs. I have run through the heat. I have run through the cold and have endured the pain and sweat. I have never felt more ready for any race.

This past weekend we went for out last 22 mile run and it was my fastest run ever. And what do I have to show for it, memories. That is it! 22 miles at 4:14 with a pace of 11:44.

When we got through with the run, I took my watch off and placed it on my tailgate with my fuelbelt. We all took turns sitting down and getting drinks and when I got ready to leave, I shut the tailgate and it was gone. I looked everywhere and called everyone to see if someone might have picked it up by accident. Well not luck. I wanted to see the chart from my watch. I was able to shave off 35 sec per mile on my last 5 miles. I was kicking tail. My running times were in the upper 6's and the lower 7's and I dont know where it was coming from. I guess it is from all the training.

This weekend I will be running Jays Hope 5K barefoot in memory of my friend Zack Pruitt. I am glad we are in the taper phase now so we can slow down. My body is tired and I need some downtime.

Jays Hope 5K

this is going to be an emotional race for me this year. we get all caught up in the hoopla of just going to a race to run. we forget about the cause for what it stands for. well not this year.

this is a race that is run in honor of childfen with cancer.

when i ran my first ten k there was a friend of mine who ran the last mile with me in his socks around a muddy mile track. when we finished he daddy told him to throw his socks away and tell your momma you lost them. so for the rest of the day he went barefoot.

well zack became one of my running partners and his father ran with me on my first half marathon. zack came down with a fatal brain tumor and died at the age of foreteen.

in his honor and memory i will be running jays hope barefoot this year. it is just a small way to say thank you to a friend who took time out of his day to help me.

3 weeks to go

i cant believe that is has come down to only weeks left before chickamauga. i am so excited and so nervous. i can see the finish line in my head but i dont want to count my chickens just yet. we have been through alot in our training but i think we are there.

1 month to go

Well, we are now 1 month to go before I tackle Chickamauga again. I have alot of memories from this marathon but I want to make some more. I want to be able to bury the demon that has lived on my shoulder for nearly 4 years now. I have not been able to break the 5 hour mark but I believe with all my heart that this is going to change at Chick.

I have been with a wonderful group of runners in our Galloway program that has helped me out. They have given my energy when I had nothing left to go on. They have helped me to remember my own words in training. We have gone by the book and so far it has paid off. Mentally I am so ready for this race. Physically, I think I am, but we have 1 more long run to go on Oct. 23rd. Then I will know how I feel.

I am getting everything ready in my head for the race. Also I am a co-race director for the Bartram Forest 50K/marathon just 2 weeks after the marathon at Chick. So as far as my free time goes, there is no none right now.

We went out this morning for our 12 mile repeat run of 1 mile intervals. We had so many people that was not going to be there due to vacation, injuries and other things. So for the 3 of us that was able to make it, I decided to change it to a 11 mile run at a faster run than marathon pace. We started out at a pace of 11:28 and finished with an overall pace of 11:00. We were right on the mark and down to the exact second to our training pace. I am so proud of our running group. It has been a pleasure to run with these guys and girls.

My fastest 22 mile practice run

Today was awesome. I had no idea that I was so close to being ready for Chickamauga. I want to go ahead and get this race started. Today we went out for our 22 mile practice run at which we are suppose to be running at a pace of 13:20 which is 2 minutes slower than race pace.





Well it did not happen. We did 22 miles at an average pace of 11:46 per mile. That's right. We were 1:34 per mile faster than we should have been. I have now been off of soda drinks for 12 days. I have cut back on my caffeine and was taking GU blocks that had caffeine in them and they paid off. I thought I was on cloud nine. We blew the time out of the water. My watch had gotten turned off for about 2 miles so I did loose some data but that's ok. We had a short break at mile 11 at our vehicles to grab some more water but did not turn off the watch. Here below is the graph from my watch.