Marathon (this is a little over due sorry)

Yay!! I did it I ran the (okay so there was a lot walking toward the end) Marathon.

Here's me before the race with Shelly eating my last minute banana for the race.

Here is all the guys who ran. Keith and his brother ran the Half-Marathon(13.1 miles) Mr. Baker and I ran the Marathon (26.2 miles)

Here's us waiting and still trying to figure out if we are in the right spot.

Shelly hollered at me to turn for a picture right about when the guy said GO!!! this is the result.

So we were off, I felt pretty good. We made a mistake and ran a little too fast early on, but we held out for about six miles. Here Shelly can see me coming.

At the first stop Shelly had some sport jelly beans and Gatorade. It was good. This is right about when we got to her.

From here I didn't see Shelly for another 10 miles, which was a little too long for me to go with out food. I could have easily made it to 16 miles and stopped and been fine but at 16 miles I was out of food and energy, I did get a few bites of a snickers bar along the way. I only grabbed a few pieces because i didn't want to seem like a greedy pig. Mr. Baker was not with me at the time he had to stop for the bathroom and was going to catch up. Once he caught up he told me he grabbed handfuls and had been eating them catching up to me. Guess I should have played the pig...

During this time we were coming up to the course where it would double back and all the really good runners were heading back to the finish line. What I thought was awesome was they all cheered for me as went back. They were heading back in on about mile 20 or so and I was heading in after about 12 miles or so. Running is such a cool sport because everyone cheers for everyone. I was so encouraged by them to keep on because now I felt that if I didn't finish I'd let them all down as well.

Here is us at about mile 16, I was beat very tired and had no energy.


Once I saw Shelly I was much more energized (mostly cause I didn't want her to catch me walking cause I was dying), but more than that because I love seeing her and she was really worried about me. She had my banana and a full throttle ready for me. I slowed a little and kept on going, Mr. Baker on the other hand stopped, gave the report on how we were doing and I think got a peanut butter sandwich??? He caught up with me later. I wasn't going to have a full throttle, I was going to save it for like mile 20 or so, just in case. Boy was I wrong I needed it right then and it hit the spot I was able to keep going another 2 miles or so and then the worse part happened to me.

I pulled a muscle in my calf. We are not real sure what caused it. It could have been not enough stretching at the beginning, lack of water and salt for 6 miles on a day that was warming up, could have been too many hills (I didn't train real hard on hills). It hit me hard, it knotted and wouldn't go away. I was really thankful for Mr. Baker being there. He helped me stretch it out and showed me the proper ways of doing it. I later found out from him that he thought I wouldn't have made it after that. It was my first marathon and training hadn't gone the way I'd have liked it to. And now a leg cramp, I still had about 8 miles or so to go. I was determined to finish and kept going.

I ran into a couple who were trudging along and he gave me some salt pills and a Gatorade, it did help but it was already too late the damage was done. So for the next 8 miles or so I had to stop and stretch it out and knead the muscles loose to continue. It ruined my time, although I was already slipping behind before that happened but now it was really dragging.

Here we see two men running,(mile 22) one who feels great and is jumping around the other looks like they are about to collapse. I had 4.6 miles to go after this. I was also in the need of a bathroom (clean bathroom) Thankfully around the bend the Lord provided. More stretching and I was off.

Here we are at about mile 24. We had a little walking but the past mile and a half I ran without having to stop and stretch, things were looking up, but after about mile 20 you are pretty much running on mind alone. Your body will spend all of it's energy after this point, it becomes a mental battle. You eat and drink not because it does anything for you but because you think it does something for you. I got to see my biggest cheering section at this point. My dad was able to locate me along with the Pallers from our church with everyone else who had already ran. The kids had made signs and I was touched.

Due to some traffic problems Shelly didn't get to get the picture of me running across the finish line. But I did it. I got my medal and a congrats for finishing from some lady who worked there, then it hit me horrible pain was shooting up through my now worn out and severely cramping calf and my legs as well. I tried stretching but it wasn't doing much good. If I hadn't have been so happy finishing I probably would have fallen down crying in pain. Everyone was there at the end. It was a great time.

This is the shirt I got for finishing, it is a really nice running shirt I was surprised at the quality of the material.

After the race I truly learned why Friends Don't Let Friends Run Marathons. Although Keith wants to run one with me now... So I guess we aren't friends?

oh well, I look forward to exercising and burning off more fat in the future. Training and running this marathon has taught me a lot about what the human body can do and endure.

Again let me apologize for not posting sooner.

And thanks to all of those who supported me!!!

The History behind Valentines Day

I found a historically accurate origins of Valentines Day, I must say I was shocked...

"For generations, Valentine's Day has ignited passion, caused fistfights, broken up marriages and led single people to ingest more tequila than Amy Winehouse and Ted Kennedy can handle.
What most people don't realize, though, is that Feb. 14 is about more than testing the memories of middle-aged married men or undermining the self-esteem of the unattached.
According to unsubstantiated gossip, a room full of middle managers, a Google search and that owl from the Tootsie Pop commercials, the true history of Valentine's Day is quite rife with romance.
You see, back in the third century, Roman Emperor Claudius II made it illegal for young men to marry because he felt they would make for better soldiers if they were single. Well, a priest by the name of Valentine thought that practice was way harsh. So he began conducting marriage ceremonies in secret – including one for Elizabeth Taylor and her second husband.
Anyway, when the emperor found out about these marriages, he jailed Valentine and issued an execution order set for Feb. 15. However, the day before the scheduled hanging – Feb. 14 – a cow in a barn next door to the jail kicked over a lamp and caught the whole city on fire. Valentine escaped and hopped around the world under assumed names for centuries before settling in Pennsylvania.
It was there that under the fictional moniker Milton Hershey he started a chocolate factory. And every year on the anniversary of his fateful escape he held a massive sale on heart-shaped boxes of candy.
But his chocolate fortune soon led to excess, and he took to drinking, often dressing in nothing more than a diaper and angel wings during parties at Jay Gatsby's house. It was at one such party that he fell in love with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Paris Hilton of her time.
The two carried on a torrid love affair with the help of their friends, the Hall brothers, who had invented greeting cards that could be sent in envelopes so people sorting mail – like White House interns – would not read the contents.
The relationship ended with Roosevelt's death in 1962. But touched by the epic love story, Richard Nixon made Valentine – by now the host of The Price is Right – a saint on Aug. 8, 1974.
How the folks at 1-800-Flowers got involved is still unclear..."

written by Brandon Formby

Leonard Nimoy Sings about Bilbo Baggins

I don't really understand this, if any one has a clue or a comment please fill me in...

And what is with the weird girls running around with Spock ears?

Fun pics

Today is an easy day just sit back and enjoy the fun pics.


Some of these are random the rest are what are called demotivational posters. Let me know in the comments which are your favorites...

This is why America wins wars!!!

I laughed really hard at this one

hmmm I can see the Princess in this oufit.

Awesome I see 3 how many can you see?

I'm not hating i just thought this was funny!

Good things still happen on TV.

hmm wonder why this is a topic...

Here's some proof that TV can do some good. I'll post the link so you can see where i got it.

http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser_5/community/weight_loss_gallery/gallery_0093.shtml#main

The Biggest loser TV show has inspired hundreds of people in the US and even other countries to start losing weight, to start evaluating their lives and start counting calories and get healthy. Here is a 6 year old boy who watches the show and learned that exact same lesson. He dropped 30 pounds through diet and exercise (like it should be done) here are his pics. On the website there is a place to leave comments should you feel like congratulating him.


Before

After