Another Marathon Weekend in the Brooke House - Lost Dutchman's Marathon

Well...the running continues. It's very cool to be able to run year round and not have to bundle up!! Scott has continued to run events since the P.F. Chang's 1/2 marathon on January 18th. On January 31st, Scott ran a 1/2 marathon in Surprise (about an hour from the house) and ran a PR race time of 1:39 and was very pleased with this time. He felt great after his run, which tells us that all of his hard work and training is paying off!!




Last weekend we ran a Full Moon 5k in Scottsdale...only in AZ can you run a 5k in February at 7pm and not freeze!! It was a very small race, and the moon didn't exactly cooperate, but we had fun and Maggie had a PR 5k time of 33 minutes.



This weekend was the Lost Dutchman's Marathon weekend. It was down in Apache Junction, about 30 minutes from Chandler, and hosted multiple invents including a 2 mile, 8k, 10k, 1/2 marathon and full marathon. Scott signed up months ago to run the full marathon and Maggie joined in to run the 10k. Maggie did really well, running in 1:10 even. Pretty exciting considering a year ago she was recovering from foot surgery and now is running long distances on a regular basis. Needless to say the surgery was the right call because she has been running pain free since she completed her recovery!!


Scott ran the full marathon and did really well, finishing in 3:54.

Scott's report:
This was the best marathon I've run. Not because of the time but because of the race management and relative convenience. It was by far the worst I've felt in any race but for different reasons. I tried experimenting with salt tablets during this race, thinking it would benefit me toward the end... but it actually gave me leg cramps at mile 11. I pretty much ran the last 15.2 miles with extremely heavy legs. I should know by now not to "experiment" on race day... oh well. I learned.
They bussed us way out into the middle of nowhere in the mountains at 6am and had camp fires and stretching mats in the middle of a field. It was pretty cold (35 degrees) at the start so it took a while to warm up. I got to chat with a couple runners who were recently featured in Runners World before the race. One was an 18 year old who had just run the Grand Canyon rim to Rim (48 miles) to become the youngest runner to accomplish this. The other was a retired gentleman who runs marathons every weekend. He hitched a camper to his pick up truck and travels year round to races. I think he's been doing for a few years now.
The first 11 miles went pretty well.... I was probably somewhere in the top 25 but then I hit some sort of wall. My legs cramped up and I figured it was the salt tabs. I kept trying to drink fluids but nothing worked. After a while I just shuffled towards the end. 3:54 was a good time but I was a bit disappointed... my training was leading me towards a 3:25ish. Oh well, I guess there's enough races to keep trying.
As for now... I'm looking forward to some needed time off! Probably two weeks - if I can make it that long!

It's Racing Season

Without even noticing it, I'm in the middle of a running "racing" season. It started with the PF Changs Phoenix 1/2 Marathon with Maggie and then last weekend I ran the Desert Classic 1/2 Marathon. I ended up setting my personal 1/2 marathon record in that race (1:39:14). That race was full of setbacks.... it started with me showing up a bit late and starting 4 minutes after the gun went off. I played catch up and caught everyone in the field but 10 people. Finishing 11th felt pretty good except it was the most boring course I've ever run. Out and back in the middle of the desert. This is the type of scenery you imagine when you think of the desert. Nothing but dirt, rock, and cactus with a road right down the middle. There was also a military base off in the distance that had bombs going off! Not sure what that was but there was a hint of gunpowder stench in the air. I forgot my sunscreen and sunglasses so that's never good in the middle of the desert! A good day nonetheless!

This weekend, Maggie and I will be doing a 5k in the dark. It's a "full-moon" 5k in Scottsdale that will have lanterns lining the course. Should be a fun evening.... if we can see.

Next weekend I will be running my 3rd marathon (Lost Dutchman) in Apache Junction, AZ. It's a downhill course the entire way so I'm hoping to set another "personal" record there as well.

After that I'll have a few more on the schedule but the summer will probably limit the insane running. If all goes well, we'll be in town in November so I can do the JFK 50 mile again. Hopefully I can finish in the daylight this time!

Team Brooke Runs PF Chang's Arizona Half Marathon

Maggie and I ran the PF Chang's Arizona Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon this past weekend in a time of 2:58:45. The run went much smoother than we thought.... it helped that it was 75 degrees and sunny. It was an extremely long day and with over 30,000 runners anything can go wrong.
We woke up at 4am so we could get there in plenty of time for the 8:30am start time. Even though we got there at 5:30am, we purchased a Warm Zone package that allowed us to sit in a heated tent that was stocked with coffee, bagels, fruit, power bars, free gloves, and plenty of VIP port-o-potties. We agreed that it was the best money we have ever spent and the money went towards Chances for Children, an organization that raises awareness about childhood obesity. The alternative would have been sitting in a dark field in the cold desert air and waiting in line for a LONG time to go to the bathroom.
We got to our starting line corral and had to wait 38 minutes before we actually crossed the official start line. After 2 cups of coffee (Maggie refrained from coffee...but not me) we had to make our first bathroom stop at the mile 1! We hit that first mile right at 11 minutes. We weren't running all out, just settling into a nice comfy pace we could keep for a while. We actually had to make a conscious effort to stop at mile 3 just so we could walk to make sure we didn't over-extend ourselves at the start. We hit that 3 mile mark in 35:00 - right on pace.
It was at this point that I noticed something a bit "strange." I've run plenty of races in my time and the #1 priority to a runner is water. So when we took a sip of our first water from the aid stations we immediately realized it was tap water!!! Tap water is most areas of the country doesn't taste all that bad, but tap water in Arizona sucks! They tell you not to drink the water in Arizona due to lots of reasons - kinda the same side effects if you drink the water in Mexico. We had brought our own water bottles (I wore my belt, Maggie carried her bottle) so we had water early on. When I realized it was tap water it scared me..... I knew this water could easily make us sick.
We ran another few miles before it got worse. At mile 8 we saw volunteers filling trash cans with water out of garden hoses. Then the volunteers were taking cups and dipping them in the trash cans to fill the cups for the runners. That was so brutal we resorted to a "spur of the moment" back-up plan. Maggie knew the neighborhood we were in since her contract job with Ultimate Staffing was right around the corner and a convenience store was coming up soon. We had stashed a $20 bill in my fuel belt for an "emergency".... and this was definitely an emergency. Around mile 9 we pulled off the course at a convenience store and bought 3 large bottles of Smartwater and refueled. I carried another large bottle just to get us through the last few miles.
During our entire training we had set a goal of breaking 3 hours. A week prior to the race we did a 10 miler and struggled a bit to keep a pace that would allow us to break 3 hours. So when I saw that we hit 10 miles in a little over 2 hours I figured we could easily break 3 hours. We ran almost the same pace the entire way and I figured we ran a total of 11 miles and walked only 2 miles.
We crossed the finish line in 2:58:45 and since it was my job to "pace" us to the finish in under 3 hours, I was sweating it out the last few hundred yards. But we got it done.... no issues at all (other than a slight blister at mile 11) and already have talked about the next half marathon. Maybe Las Vegas. I doubt I can talk Maggie into a full marathon. A bunch of fun 5K's will also be part of our future plans and will be no problem. I'll throw in the JFK 50 next fall as well. So we'll need some cheerleaders again!
It was a great day and overall we hit our goal with no problems or injuries so we'll take it as a victory. Most of all...we had a lot of fun running together!! If anyone needs a couple pacers just let us know - we are now veterans!