Howdy friends and neighbors. time for my annual post to this blog, and also time for the final installment of the Mother Road 100 ultra marathon on Route 66 in northeast Oklahoma. I am approaching my training with a new enthusiasm which i hope will carry me to the 100 mile finish line. As you may recall, in the 2008 race i only made it to mile 42, and in the inagural race in 2006 i completed the entire 100 miles.

the 2010 race will be in November. you can check out the details at www.motherroad100.com.

i will try to update the blog as my training progresses, but i make no promises. happy running....

OK. So the Mother Road 100 (2) didn't go as well as I had hoped. I didn't do much training for it, so what was I to expect. My training pretty much consisted of a couple 5 mile runs in the summer, a 5 mile walk, and a 4 mile walk. I did a proper pre race carbo load at about 8:00 a.m. of 3 or 4 beers. You can find a picture of my big belly and the rest of me, and my lovely wife Sarah, enjoying a cold pre-race beer at trail zombies blog, somewhere around the date of November 6 or 7, 2008. Sarah crewed for me and my buddy Brian and does a great job. she seems to always know what I need before I even have to ask. She is the best. She also picked up another runner to crew for that had no other crew and was running the same pace as me, so we were running together for a number of miles. Even after I had dropped and my friend Brian had dropped, our adopted runner Michelle was still going, and Sarah was still taking care of her.

It is probably a miracle I made it 42 miles with my considerable lack of training. I was probably not going to make the 50 mile cut-off time (although there was some confusion as to what the cut-off time actually was) so dropped at mile 42. Going to start back at the basics of running again. I am going to do my best to get out with the Runners World Store training group as often as possible and see if I can get a decent time at the Oklahoma Memorial Marathon in April 2009.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all who happen by this blog. Here's to a fine 2009!! Cheers!

OK. I have completed my training and the Mother Road 100 part 2 is this weekend. I have not trained very much, but hope to make the distance before the 30 hour cutoff. I will update this blog with my results in a few days.

OK kids, I took a year off from any serious, or semi-serious, or remotely serious training. Now it is time to kick it into high gear as I have just registered for the Mother Road 100, Part 2 (MR2), scheduled for November 2008. This is a 100 mile ultra marathon on old Route 66 (yes, it is on pavement)in the western part of Oklahoma. I know that any of you who are ultra runners that might happen to read this probably prefer trails, but not me. I have tried the trails and everytime, without fail, no matter how much stretching, massaging, training I do, my ITB will get so sore I cannot run. About 8 or 9 months before the Mother Road 100 Part 1 (MR1) I attempted a 50 mile trail race. I made it about 30 miles and DNF'd becasue my ITB was so sore and inflamed that I wasn't able to run and barely managed to walk to the start line. I wasn't able to do any training for about 8 weeks afterwards. Needless to say, my training for MR2 will not include trail running. That is a real shame too, because I love the outdoors and the trails and hiking and camping. Just can't seem run the trails though.

I don't mind the pavement. I have never had an injury due to running on the pavement. Have had some close encounters with cars, dogs, bicycles as we all have, but have never had an accident or injury. (I am knocking on wood as I write this).

Over the past year I have gained about 20 pounds and lost a lot of the fitness I had acheived. I am confident I can get back to an appropriate level of fitness to complete the MR2.

I will share my training journey with anyone that cares to read about it. For those of you who don't run, or don't think they can complete an ultra marathon, here is my background:

I am a CPA, an accountant in Tulsa, OK. I am 50 years old, soon to be 51. I sit at my desk all day. I was not an athlete in high school or college. IN fact, I had a triple major in college: studyhall, pool hall and alcohol. I didn't take up running until about 5 years ago, and since then it has been pretty inconsistent. I am a bottom tier finisher, but I am a finisher! Ultra marathoning is as much about mental toughness as it is physical toughness. I am no expert, and actually know very little about the sport of running. I do know that the Ultra Running community is encouraging, compassionate, friendly, supportive, and a bunch of other adjectives (or is it adverbs?). I guess my point is if you want to run an ultra marathon, or marathon, just find a goal race and start training to get it done. Check out the local running stores and clubs and I promise you will find good people, at all ages and skill levels that will help you reach your goals.

Happy training!

Day 10
Weight 195

Well friends, if anyone happens to be reading this or following my experience on the Master Cleanse, I have made it to day 10. You will notice there are no posts for days 6 through 9. Mostly because things were the same as days 1 through 5. The flush continues to work well, when mixed with the proper amount of sea salt, the herbal tea laxative works ok, but will sometimes give me some minor stomach cramping in the mornings, but stops once the 'cleanse' is complete in the morning. I have not had any food other than: about a 1 inch long piece of raman noodle, one kernal of corn (which I think I spit out), and one piece of wheel pasta. This was just to taste them before feeding them to my daughter to make sure they were a) not too hot, and b) cooked properly.

Honestly somewhere in the day 5-6 range not eating food didn't really bother me. I can sort of see how doing something like this master cleanse could possibly lead to the beginnings of an eating disorder if one were inclined to that sort of thing, or had a history of that type of a problem.

Overall, I feel better than when I started, I have more energy, and generally have a better attitude. Due to a hectic work schedule and some pretty lousy weather, other than just a couple of days, I have not had the opportunity to get outside and run or ride my bike.

I am really pleased with the amount of weight that I lost and am anxious to see it stays off once I beging eating again. I will write a post for my blog to let everyone know what happens.

My plans for coming off the cleanse are to switch to the Michaels Naturopathic Programs Ultimate Detox & Cleanse for about 4 days. I will take their supplements and begin with eating fruits and vegetables (raw, if possible). Once the master cleanse is complete you need to replace some of the good bacteria in your system which has been flushed out through the cleansing process and the Michaels program supplements contaiin those things.

Overall, this has been good experience for me and I will no doubt do it again. I don't know how often one is suppose to do this sort of thing, but it will be at least several months before I do it again. Total cost for the cleanse was less than $100 for the 10 days, and probably around $80-$85.

Thanks for following along, and I hope this helps you.

Day 5
Weight 202

It has been a pretty good day. I looked up the lemon cleanse diet first thing this morning and I think I had been putting two tablespoons of sea salt in a quart of water each morning, and the diet listed 2 teaspoons. So, I only added two teaspoons of sea salt to my water this morning and nothing seemed to happen other than I drank a quart of salt water. No 'cleansing' this morning at all, so I suppose I just retained the water. I have probably not had all the lemonade I was suppose to have today, but I have been busy cleaning up the garage and the day just slipped away from me.

My energy level seems to be increased and I feel good. I still miss eating and get the urge to eat in the afternoons. So far, I have been able to resist.

I am thinking about quitting this cleanse after day five and continue with a different cleanse, one that allows you to eat, for 5-7 days. Will just see how I feel in the morning.

Day 4
Weight 204

Things went pretty well today. I seem to get hungry each afternoon, but other than that, being hungry has not really been much of an issue. The morning routine has remained the same, so I won't go into those details again.

I haven't felt tired or run down. All in all, things seem to be going ok. I wasn't able to exercise any today due to a too hectic schedule, but might try and get out for a run or bike ride tomorrow. Temps still remain way below normal for this time of year, but at least it looks like we will have some sunshine tomorrow which always helps.

I continue to drink 5-6 cups of coffee a day too.

Day 3
Weight 204

Well, I have managed to get through the 3rd day of my master cleanse. I drank a cup of the herbal tea laxative last night before going to bed since I didn't have to be any where too early this morning, in case things got going really well.

I slept in this morning until about 8:00 because I stayed out at the Indian Casino until 1:00a.m. and was a little tired. I actually came out of the casino about $800 ahead, so it was worth my while, and of course fun. Anyway, I drank the tea and went to bed when I got home and really didn't notice much difference in my morning due to the tea. I drank the salt water flush first thing, and it worked like a charm again. About half an hour after drinking it, I used the bathroom 5 times (see footnote 1 below) over the course of about 20-30 minutes, and the flush was done, I showered, and went in to the office. I honestly don't see the need for the laxative. Maybe the flush doesn't work as well for other folks, but I will drink it again tonight before going to bed and see how tomorrow morning goes.


I drank 8 glasses of the lemonade today (10oz each). I already have my lemonade made for tomorrow and will drink 10 glasses.

Today I felt good but got a pretty hungry in the middle of the afternoon. Probably because I ran out of lemons and didn't have any lemonade from 10:00a.m. until 5:00p.m. Probably not the way the program is designed, but hey, life gets in the way sometimes. It is tax season and I have to meet with clients.

I have read that day 3 is one of the tougher days, and for me it was pretty tough in the afternoon when I was so hungry. Would have helped if I had planned better and had my lemonade made the night before.

The weather here has been below freezing temps for the last few days with some mixture of snow, sleet, and rain so I haven't been out to run. My eight year old daughter and I are home alone this weekend, so unless she goes to grandma's or one of her friends house's to play for a few hours, I won't be able to get out for a run. Might set my bike and trainer up inside the house and do some spin. I am curious how I will feel after exercising.

To sum it up, so far so good and I am still bent on going the full 10 days.

Now I am off to drink my tea and go to bed.

footnote 1: As with any pure liquid diet, pretty much pure liquid comes out. Seems to exit rather forcful as well, so there is some splattering and subsequent soiling of the toilet that takes place. Just wanted to mention this so that everyone can live this experience with me, and you can plan for some additional time each morning to clean the toilet before leaving the house.