Today started early when the alarm went off at 4:00am! Lots to do to get ready for “race day” – the Country Music Half Marathon.

Two of my co-workers, Cathi Goff and Teresa Elliott, ran the full Marathon and we met at the Team Rio gathering point before the start of the race.

Don’t we look great! All smiles at this point.

A little cool at 6:00am, but it did warm up quite a lot by the time we all finished. Of course, I had it easier since I was only doing the half marathon while Cathi and Teresa did the full marathon. Their first one! As Cathi said, “My goal is to finish and get the medal” and they both did just that. Awesome!

I trained with Team Rio, supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle TN, in preparation for the race. I want to thank the coaches, team members, and BBBS sponsors for their support and encouragement.

I started in corral #27. By the time I got to the start line, the first group had left 42 minutes earlier! The road was wide – 6 or 7 lanes at the start – so runners and walkers spread out pretty quickly. No problem with anyone running over me. The race is very well organized, well run, and the runners/walkers back in corral #27 were certainly not running to win the race so they were pretty easy going.

Two great things about the County Music marathon are that there are live bands playing about every mile and there are thousands of cheering crowds on both sides of the road along the route. Both keep you pumped up!

It started getting really warm about mile 7. Fortunately, there were plenty of water stations, and I did not miss any of them.

My goal was to finish in under 3 hours. I finished in 2hrs 53 minutes 😉  Officially, that’s a pace of 13:13 per mile. Since I did not walk the shortest “official” path my Garmin said I walked 13.23 miles, which translates to a 13:03 average pace. Either way, I’m happy!

Thanks to everyone who donated to Big Brothers and Big Sisters and the American Cancer Society to support my fundraising for this race! You are awesome – thank you very much!

One week to go before the Country Music half-marathon and we are cutting back on our Team Rio practice distances. However, one thing that we will be increasing is our water consumption to increase our hydration level during this final week of preparation. The personal hydration recommendation is calculated from the formula – divide your weight in half, convert the result to ounces, and you have the quantity of liquid to consume each day. For me that’s 174/2 = 87 oz. per day, or about 10 glasses  of water a day.

The temperature was 70 degrees (F) at 7:00am this morning and the sky was overcast. The weather forecast for next Saturday is warm and sunny so it hydration should be a major factor for everyone. I feel good, ready to go.

After today’s practice session, many Team Rio members met at the local Bruegger’s bagel shop to support a Big Brothers Big Sisters fund raiser. Bruegger’s donated 15 percent of all purchases made by people with a BBBS fund raining flier at all stores in the Nashville area on Saturday. I hope this raised a lot of money for BBBS.

I’m training to walk in the Country Music half marathon to support Big Brothers Big Sisters. If you’d like to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters and support me, please click here. Thanks for your support!

46 degrees (F), drizzly, and windy this morning for our Team Rio group training session. A huge change from last week when it was about 70 degrees and sunny. Brentwood (TN) has a great system of paved trails for walking/running/biking and today we navigated along 10.5 miles of those trails. This is my favorite area to walk – no cars, just smooth pavement.

After taking the first mile to warm-up on this cool day, I stepped up my pace and ended averaging 13:42 minutes per mile. This is my fastest average pace so far! I felt good, no aches or pains. I thought we would finish the session without getting too wet, but at about the 8 mile mark it started raining quite hard. The rain lasted for about 20 minutes or so, which was plenty of time to get me soaked!

I’m training to walk in the Country Music half marathon to support Big Brothers Big Sisters. If you’d like to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters and support me, please click here. Thanks for your support!

Two weeks until the race 🙂

One year ago today, I received my first chemotherapy treatment! I am so grateful that today I am healthy and getting back into shape. It’s been a wild year that I would not wish on anyone. This blog has chronicled many details of my journey.

Thanks to everyone who supported me, treated me, and prayed for me. I was extremely well taken care during the past year, and for that I am extremely honored and thankful.

My wife Mary was my number one champion during this challenging time. She nursed me, comforted me, loved me, adjusted her schedule around my many appointment, cross-examined doctors, worried about me, made sure I received the best care possible, and much, much more. She is awesome!

I expect 2011 to be a fantastic year. I’ve been given the gift of returning to good health, and I do not plan to squander it.

I will be participating in the Country Music Half Marathon on April 30. With the help of my family, friends, and a few strangers, we’ve raised nearly $4,000 in donations for the American Cancer Society and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Also, I expect to become a Big Brother very soon as part of Big Brothers Big Sisters. This is exciting, and I’m looking forward to mentoring a boy who has no father figure in his day-to-day life. Check it out, you would make a good Big Brother or Big Sister.

Next, stay tuned. More to come…

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

It was an unseasonably warm morning for our weekly training session preparing for the Country Music Half Marathon – about 65 degrees at 7:30 am. Our warmest training Saturday so far, and the afternoon sun set a new record high temperature for this date. I hope it’s not this hot on race day, which is only two weeks away.

Today’s course was the longest so far – 12.3 miles – and I walked it at my fastest pace so far – 13:53 minutes per mile average pace. Total time was 2hrs 51 minutes 5 seconds. At that pace I would finish that half marathon in about 3 hrs 5 minutes.

The route today was not too hilly, just some gentle slopes. But it was warm, so I kept hydrated along the way. Also, I tried some thing new today that was great. I’ve been consuming GU Energy Gel on past training sessions, but today I also had a bag of GU Chomps – energy chews. They were not messy like the GU Gel, and they tasted better to me. Plus, I could feel an energy boost! I will be buying more of these to use during the next few weeks and on race day.

3 hours is my new goal for the Country Music Half Marathon. Yes, I’m walking it, not running 🙂