Encouraging News

I got a great deal of encouragement today about my injury.  I went to the L.A Leggers run to seek out some advice on continuing my training for the L.A. Marathon from some of the Leggers.  I spoke with Bill Lockton, who seems to be the guy in charge and a very experience ultra long distance runner.  He was very encouraging in terms of me being able to recover in time to do the L.A. Marathon.  He said the conventional wisdom is that if you have done at least three eighteen mile training runs you will be able to do a marathon.  I have done one eighteen miler and I will somehow fit in two more by March.  I hope I can even do a twenty or twenty two mile run.  

I then talked to Curtis Blume, the mentor for my pace group, who is also currently not running because he broke some ribs while tripping on a run about a month ago, and he thought I would be fine.  He said don't try to keep the Leggers schedule, but get to where I can do a ten mile run and then every other week do a much longer run of fifteen to 20 miles.  Okay, I think I can do this.

After I talked to the Legger mentors I went down to lifeguard tower 26 with the hope of getting in an ocean swim.  Tim Bomba had email the Swim Better Looking yahoo group to see if anyone was up for a swim at 8:30 on Saturday.  I replied that I was, but not until rather late. I hadn't heard back, so I was not sure he was coming.  I don't like to swim in the ocean by myself and since he never showed I didn't swim.  I did, however, run into Jim Jones.  He came down for a walk on the beach.  We walked and talked and had a pretty good time.   

Later I jammed and my leg feels pretty good.  Life will be back to normal pretty soon.

John THum

The First Setback

On December 15, 2007 I was quite excited. I was ready to run twenty miles with the L.A. Leggers. This was to be the furthest I had ever run. I knew that if I could run twenty miles, I could finish a marathon. When I completed running twenty miles I was going to sign up for the 2008 L.A. Marathon. All of this is part of training for my larger goal of finishing an Ironman Triathlon, but finishing a marathon is a pretty big step to that end.

I was feeling good. The whether was perfect for running, very cool, but not too cold. At about eight miles I commented to Tim, one of the Leggers I often line up with, that I was amazed that I had not had any injuries since I started running. I am by no means a natural runner. I have been a slow, plodding runner my whole life. A knee injury in the eighth grade made me even slower and gave me an even weirder gate. But somehow, even with that, I managed to run in two half-marathons, I completed training runs of fourteen, sixteen and eighteen miles. I was feeling great just short of the nine mile mark of my twenty mile run when my right foot barely hit a rock and it just slightly tripped me. I came down hard on my left foot, but didn't fall. There was a pain in the back of my knee. I immediately thought it was minor, then about four seconds later, I realized it wasn't. Everyone in the group kept asking, "are you okay?" as they ran by. I just said, "I'll be okay."

The last mentor finally came up and walked with me for a little bit while the rest of the group went on. I pulled my calf, it was hard to tell how badly at that point. I borrowed her cell phone and called my parents to ask if I should stretch it or not. They said no. I really wanted to stretch it. I then called Wendy to come and pick me up.

The perfect running whether was awfully cold for just sitting and waiting for someone to pick you up. I started shivering.

It is almost two weeks later, and I am certainly much better, but I haven't run at all. There have been times when I thought that I was done. That I would not do the L.A. Marathon and that I wouldn't do the Ironman 70.3 California. However, if I can start running again within a week, I can get back on track for the L.A Marathon, if not I will start training for the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon in June.

John Thum

The Great Magnetic Field

Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind?
I guess the answer to these questions will be answered on November 23, 2008 when I attempt to become an Ironman in Tempe, Arizona.

Can he walk at all? Or if he moves, will he fall?
These may be good questions to ask on November 24, 2008 if I am successful in completing an Ironman.

I had a plan. But like many well-laid plans, the circumstances changed. I was going to do a couple of half-Ironman races and complete all of the elements of the Ironman and then sign up for Ironman Arizona of April, 2009. I signed up for the Ironman 70.3 California next March 29. This is a half-Ironman. I have completed all of the half-iron distances separately and I am confident that with some good winter training, I can finish a half-Ironman. I am training to run the L.A. Marathon in early March. I am planning a century ride for January. I was going to swim 2.4 miles between now and next April. If all of these were successful, I was going to attend Ironman Arizona in April on 2008 and sign-up to make sure I got a spot. Ironman race usually sell out less than an hour after they go on sale on the internet. One has to sign up in person to assure a spot.

On Monday, November 26, I heard that Ironman Arizona is going to change their date from April to November. There will be two in 2008 and then going forward the IM Arizona will take place in November. This is probably a good thing. There is usually less wind in November than in April, and the IM Arizona has had some pretty gnarly wind and sand conditions. However, if I were to wait for the 2009 race, it would be two full years until I would be able to participate. I could have gone for another Ironman such as Coeur d’Alene or one outside of the country, but Arizona would certainly be the least expensive after factoring in travel and hotels.

I talked it over with The Great Magnetic Wife, and even though she was quite dubious about the whole thing, I decided to sign up for the Ironman. I have slightly less than a year to figure out how I am going to do this. A lot of training will be done.

One of the first sacrifices I had to make when I made the commitment to train for an Ironman was to give up my Saturday jam. I just will not be able to take hours out of my only completely free day to do something other than train. With church on Sunday and limited time on weekdays, Saturday was going to have to be the big day. I’m sure there will be many other sacrifices in the next year as well.

Is he live or Dead? Has he thoughts within his head?
We’ll just pass him there. Why should we even care?
Somewhere about mile 14 of the marathon leg of the Ironman, people may be asking that about me.

John Thum