Now for the background that makes what I said above make a little more sense. A little over two years ago, to put it as mildly as I can, I was NOT a runner. I don't mean I was not a marathon runner, I was NOT a runner at all. You really need to understand what I mean by that. I weighed over (or at the time I would tell you "close to") 300 pounds and I was NOT a runner at all. It was so bad that it was truly physically impossible for a dog to "chase" me, because if a dog decided to come after me the only thing that would even enter my mind that I could possibly do about it was get bit!!
Perhaps this will illustrate the situation from a few years back.
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I know.
Anyway, several years ago (I find myself starting more and more sentences with that phrase and it ticks me off) my friend Chris Jolley told me that the next time I run will be the first time, and he was correct. And that first time did not come until a little over two years ago. So two years ago Dawn Hooker, Tammy Harless and Thomas Christensen bought me a Mio watch with an on-board heart rate monitor. When I got the gift I thought it was the lamest gift anyone had ever given me in my life. Sorry Dawn Tammy and Thom, I know you meant well and at the time I did appreciate the thought, but when you give someone who weighs over 3-bills a watch that can track his heart rate, he cannot help but feel you are "rubbing it in". Now two years later I hold that watch sacred and consider it the greatest birthday present anyone ever gave me (sorry Tiff, I loved the guitar and amp you gave me in 1994, but your gift(s) has/have been topped. Feel free to get to work on reclaiming the title if you wish!!).
So I get the heart rate monitor watch and I take it out on a walk around my block and see what my heart rate does. Then I do the same thing the next day. Then I try to make it a mile. Then I try jogging a mile, then two miles, and within a few weeks I am jogging two miles a day 5-6 days a week. On a Saturday in November I go to my daughter's soccer game and after the game we go to the Black Bear restaurant for breakfast. While we are there several people come in wearing sweatshirts and runner bibs. They had just completed the "Turkey Trot", 5K and 10K run the Las Vegas Running Team sponsors the Saturday before Thanksgiving every year. Seeing the runners inspires me and I think "I could finish a 5K".
So I go online and see when the next 5K run will be held. Turned out it was Thanksgiving morning, five days later. So I sign up, knuckle down, and complete the 3.1 mile run to start my Thanksgiving. After my first 5K I started signing up for all of the 5K runs the Running Team held. They do about one a month, so it kept me training and kept me pushing. I ran a 10K (6.2 miles) in August 2007, and went after my first half marathon in January 2008. After that I decided I should go for a marathon. By this time I had lost 60 some odd pounds and everyone was asking me what was my secret. I told them running. When you tell people you run regularly you are always asked "have you done a marathon?" I was sick of saying "no", so I looked for a marathon to run. As it turns out most marathons are run on Sundays, which is not something I would chose to do. The only other marathons I found on a Saturday in 2008 was one at Lake Mead in August (110 degree heat), and the St. George marathon. I tried to get into St. George but they hold a lottery with a 50/50 chance of getting in if you are not a Utah resident. I did not make it in. I had pretty much given up on my goal of running a marathon in 2008 when Carl Christensen took the time to talk to me about what a marathon requires, options regarding marathons in the Nevada area, and most importantly, gave me a renewed motivation to GET MY GOAL ACCOMPLISHED. I took his kick in the behind and got on the stick (which hurts right after you have been kicked in the behind by the way).
I found the Valley of Fire marathon, which takes place in early November, on a Saturday, in relatively cool temperatures. Everyone I talked to about the VOF marathon said it is ridiculously HARD, and is by far the hardest marathon in Nevada each year. The VOF website even advertises that it "will not be your best time" but is a beautiful run you will never forget. With Carl's motivating influence I made the choice to not let anything stop me from accomplishing my goal (I have even called it a dream) of running a marathon in 2008. I signed up and started a training program that had me running 5-10 miles a day most days during the week and long runs, anywhere from 12-20 miles, on Saturdays. As I pursued the rigorous training I learned what those in the know mean when they say "26.2 is the easy part" because the day in day out training is so hard (I even ran wherever we went on vacation) that the 26.2 miles of the marathon pale in comparison.
Well today finally came and I woke my family up at 5:30 a.m. to get them to the VOF marathon start by 8:00. Tiffany agreed to entertain the girls at VOF (which is a State park in Nevada) while I ran. The participants lined up at the start and the starter's gun sounded. I was off.
Right out of the gate we made a right turn and ran straight up a STEEP hill for the first mile. I had been told the VOF run was particularly brutal but I had no idea how sadistic the route really was. After we topped the hill it was rollers out to the turn around. The race coordinators did a great job of placing aid stations every 2 miles. The turn around was a little over 6 and a half miles out because the race route had us run out and back in one direction to complete a half marathon (with the half marathon participants ending there) and then up and back in another direction to complete the second half of the marathon. Out and back for the first half was really fun. The rollers did not bother me that much and the aid stations made the time pass pretty quickly. It was a little hard to hear all the half-marathon participants yell out things like "half way there" and "thank goodness its almost over" when I had another half a marathon to still complete, but I got through it without cursing their names too much.
I finished the first half in 2 hours and 2 minutes (which was my finishing time in the half marathon I completed in January of this year). I gave a wave to my wife and daughters, enjoyed their screams of encouragement, banked a right turn and headed up the road for the second half. I say headed "up the road" because the soulless race coordinators had us run 13.1 miles, take a right, and then run over six and a half miles ALL UPHILL!!! It culminated at 18.5 miles when we ran straight up a way steep switchback road that went for half a mile. Not cool. After I hit the top of the hill things leveled off for the last mile to the 20 mile turn around. Now it was 6.2 miles downhill to the finish. I put a plan in effect that I came up with a few weeks ago, to run 20 miles (which is the farthest I had run before today) and then dedicate each of the remaining miles to a member of my family. Mile 20 was for Tiffany, miles 21, 22, 23, and 24 were each dedicated to one of my four daughters, and 25 - 26.2 was for ME. So I started the plan and things went pretty well (I'd be danged if I was going to quit on Tiffany's mile, or any of my girl's miles).
Before I continue the story I need to mention something else. As the run progressed I stopped at the aid stations for water and power gels. They also had bananas and orange slices. I ate an orange slice at two of the stops thinking it would be helpful. I obviously forgot about the last time I ate orange slices when running. It was the half marathon at Lake Mead in August of this year (Moonlight madness, it started after the sun went down so we only had to run in 100 degree heat, instead of the 110 heat during the day). After I completed that run I ate an orange and tried to cool down. About 15 minutes after I finished I threw up. That was the only time I had ever thrown up after running.
Back to the marathon - I finished Tiffany's mile, as well as mile 21. A quarter of a mile into mile 22 my stomach started feeling really bad. Not cramping, but nausea. I suppose you could also say I felt a little tightness as well (which is a word rarely, if ever, used to describe my stomach). At 22.5 miles I stepped off the road and put my hands on my knees. I no sooner bent over than I dry heaved and thought "here it comes". Sure enough I threw up. I stayed in that position for a little bit until I thought I was ready to continue. As I went to take my first step I collapsed onto one knee. A car happened to be coming toward me and pulled to the side of the road. A lady got out and asked me if I wanted some water. I told her no. She offered again and told me "I have a bottle you can take with you." I told her that the last thing I needed was water because I had just thrown up. She then asked me if I wanted a ride, to which I responded "NO!!!" Truth be told I may have responded to her by saying the opposite of "Heaven's yes". In any event I was just over 3 miles from the finish and was not going to give up at this point.
I started walking for 100 feet and, like most everyone probably experiences after vomiting, I began to feel better. I then broke into a slow trot that made its way into a slow jog, and finally a slow run. The last three miles were torture. I could not believe how hard it was to keep my body moving. I had been dealing with an off and on cramp in my right calf that really made itself known during the last little bit. I kept reminding myself that everyone was going to be asking how the run went and I would not be telling folks I made it 23 or 24 miles and then gave up. Two things became very apparent to me during miles 23 and 24, 1) finishing a marathon is a big freaking deal, and 2) those guys who say 26.2 is the easy part are full of GARBAGE!!!
The last mile was the easiest of the final 6. There was a slight climb before a big descent to the finish. When I passed mile 25 I could see the finish. At that point, as Thom Thomas (one of the guys I do my Red Rock runs with) puts it, "the horses can see the barn." I picked up my pace a little and pushed to complete the marathon. About a quarter of a mile from the end three of my daughters were standing just off the roadway and joined me for the last little bit.
I crossed in 4:41. It is a time I am happy to have, especially given the ridiculously difficult course. Tiffany has been spoiling me all day today, waiting on me hand and foot, and making sure I am feeling ok. She also hired a mobile massage company to come to our home and give both of us massages. She is a keeper!
At the beginning of all of this I said that I consider my marathon a remarkable accomplishment. While I do consider it remarkable, I know there is only one reason why I was able to accomplish it, and that reason is that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. If I can go from where I was for all of my life when it comes to running (up to two years ago) to running a marathon today then ANYONE CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING. Feel free to take that list of all the things you think you cannot do and PITCH IT IN THE TRASH!! While I don't outwardly express it (and for much of my life was probably too big of a doofball to believe it) I AM NO BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE IN THIS WORLD. There isn't anyone, anywhere, who does not have the ability to do anything they set their sights on and work hard enough to achieve.
Now I don't want this to turn into some "Just believe in yourself and everything you ever dreamed of will happen to you." Bologna! Two and a half years ago I could have believed harder than those dipwads who blow themselves up for Osama Bin Laden and it wouldn't have magically transformed me into a marathon man. It takes work, lots and lots (and lots) of work. But on the other side of that work you will see all of the things that make up your wildest dreams happen (and some you never even had the guts to dream about will happen too). When I ran my first 5K, running a marathon was not even on my list of crazy stuff that I may one day think about if I had millions of dollars, all day to train, and all the liposuction money could buy. It was not even CLOSE to something I would have ever envisioned even considering. In fact, when Chris Jolley was talking about running the St. George marathon last year I did not think he was crazy, I thought he was rubber-room-living, rabbit-boiling, thinking-his-dog-is-a-reincarnated-Indian-Chief (and talking to Chief Milo about running a marathon) NREAKING FUTS!
I hope I have given you some idea as to how "impossible" my ever running a marathon once was and how very real it all became today. I does not matter what your dreams are in life, none of them are as whacked out crazy as the idea of David Sampson running a marathon. You can achieve whatever your dreams are, just work hard for it and refuse to accept anything less than making your dreams come true. I promise you that you can do it.
