October 28,2012 Marine Corps Marathon I realize I haven’t written a blog on over two months, but what better way to get back on track then with the Marine Corps Marathon. In route to the airport I had the Spirit of the Marathon cameras filming this. Fun! I knew this trip was going to be a great success because how cool is it that I arrive at the airport to gate 77, boarding group 7 and flying on a Boeing Triple 7? This had to be good, too bad I wasn’t in Vegas. I landed late Saturday afternoon, just in time to pick up my bib at the expo. I met Jonathan there. Jonathan contacted me on facebook. His father passed away from Pancreatic Cancer on April 9^th this year. It is so unfortunate but I was grateful and honored to run in his father’s honor. Jonathan ran his first marathon today he was on track to run sub 4 and guess what… he did it, 3:59. Woo Hoo. Go Jonathan. I know his father is so proud and may have had something to do with that sub4. The feeling I get is his father was a kind gentle man, just like his son and knew the importance of life. So whatever time he ran today he is so proud, remembering that it’s not about the time on the clock, it’s about the time spent in your heart. I know that both of our fathers were smiling down on us today and they always have the best seats in the house, our hearts. <3                     For the carbo load dinner I met my roomie there Dawn who was also running her first marathon and coach Gary who I met at the Kona Marathon and we of course we had to sit at table 52. I even saw my buddy Bart Yasso there. Love him. It was an awesome dinner. There were drill sergeants came around and whipped us into shape. Seriously they were coming around the tables yelling and shouting and telling us how we are not to give up, how we are to stay strong and finish the marathon in a timely manner. Oh and they were yelling at us to sit up straight. It was great.           With hurricane Sandy looming about we knew this was going to be an interesting marathon. The dark skies race morning were not a pretty sight to wake up to and I knew I had about two hours till hurricane Sandy caught me. I’ll tell you what was beautiful, the Military fly over and then the gun goes off soon after. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the start line. It was nice to see my friend Dawn off to her first marathon. She is a Rockstar. There was great energy in the air and we are off.              

No hurricane could stop these runners. Oorah!!

    For the first half of the marathon it was a little hilly but beautiful tree lined streets with the colors of the leaves in full fall effect. However for me, well let’s just say when you get to mile 1 and you have to walk, you know it can’t be good. Well that is what happened. I have been so grateful for my strong healthy knees and last week my left knee decided to go on strike. Not a long strike, I’m hoping that it will last less than a week and I will be good to go by next Sunday. Next week we have New York and 21 marathons to go. It’s all good I have the best sports physician in the world that will fix me right up. Seriously, it’s may be just an LCL sprain and had I listened to my Doctor last week and not ran on Friday for a photo op I would have been fine today. This was an incredible marathon. By far one of my favorites even if I had to walk half of it.             Running around the pentagon and the National Mall was priceless. I even stopped for a picture in front of the Capitol building and the National Monument. (picture coming) I saw and was told I inspired many friends along the way. There were people who recognized me from Facebook, it was really quite amazing. I made new friends and even ran into Dave Mari who just recently graced his presence on the cover of Runners World and it was his birthday. Happy Birthday Dave! More pictures coming, but here is Dave on the cover for Runners World and yes its real.                               As we ran through the National Mall they had pictures of fallen soldiers killed in action and American flags lining the street. It was so sad. I ran with my right hand over my heart pledging allegiance to the flags and giving thanks to every one of these young soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom. I was in tears. At mile 19 the Marines were handing out sports beans. I don’t know what was in those beans, but they were magic beans. Really they were. They must have had caffeine in them because I picked up my pace, I didn’t feel my knee anymore and I was on fire. Hooting and hollering yelling “We got this” about a billion times. I felt a little sorry for the crowd because my iPod broke and I was singing. Yep, I was singing the “final count down”. I feel like miles 19-26 my spirit just comes alive. It was an awesome finish and the medal is beautiful. I couldn’t wait to get it! This could be one of my most favorite marathons so far.                 Although I walked a lot and had some pain, my over all experience at the Marine Corps Marathon was incredible. We beat hurricane Sandy. We had a 90% chance of rain, but we dodged it. She never showed up during the marathon.However 90% of the flights coming out of DC were cancelled, but I was so fortunate mine was still on schedule. Sending prayers to the East Coast. xo               I made my plane and I am homebound. The plane is filled with a bunch of marathoners doing the marathon waddle down the isle. We were having a yoga class in the kitchen, ok not really but we were all in there stretching and rolling out our quads and calves. While on the plane I just finished watching the movie called “To Rome with Love”. Reminding me of where this journey began, the Rome Marathon. Well, they say all roads lead to Rome, well mine certainly began there. Now with 31 marathons under my belt, sponsors like Asics and others are coming aboard. I am very thankful that with this campaign I have been able to touch so many lives and hopefully will even be able to save lives with the money and awareness I am raising. I’ll attempt to get caught up with my blogs. I owe you about 18, at least. Tomorrow it’s back to work, then next up the New York marathon for number 32 and I will see you there. Sending love from 37,000 feet somewhere between Ohio and LA. We got this! Love, Julie To donate please go to www.marathongoddess.com. There is “Donate Now” button and all donations go directly to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. Even just sharing my website and telling your friends about my journey would be awesome. You never know whom you might touch. xoxoxoo

14 marathons in 13 weeks was no easy feat. However, I have had much success and am very grateful. This was one of the hardest weeks by far. To do one marathon a week is enough but to add one mid week and start it off with Leadville, well let’s just say it was a little risky. To give you a peak into how my week was going, here is a picture of my room. Packing, unpacking and packing oh my…                   Every marathon is a life lesson. To run a marathon on three hours of sleep is not smart and that is how my day started. It was a 6am start and the bus picked us up at 4:15am to the start. This journey requires extreme discipline and I have not been behaving. Even facebook friends have told me to get off facebook and go to sleep. Well pre-marathon night I felt obligated to get my latest blog out on the last marathon before I ran the next. Guess what Julie? It would be nice, but no one really cares when you post it. So with that, I finish my blog by 11pm and the computer has me so wired that I could not fall asleep until after 12 with a 3:15 wake up. If anyone were to tell me 4 years ago that I had to be in bed by 9, cut out most alcohol, junk food, soda, white flour, processed sugar I would have told them to take a hike. But I am in it to succeed with flying colors and be stronger then I ever have before, mind and body. I have been doing better since then so that is good. Even with such little sleep, race morning was fantastic. I met so many Facebook friends in real time. I met Kino, who is my brother in Arms for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. I spotted the purple shirt from across a sea of people. I ran out to hug him. Kino is rad. He runs a billion marathons a year and is fricken fast. He get’s faster each marathon. I am sure youth has something to do with it. He is awesome. I was also honored to meet Steve, the marathon maniac president. He even knew of me, how cool is that?

Kino, Me and The Pres!

    I met Mark Kramer a fellow marathon maniac. We have been Facebook friends for years, and donated to each other’s charity back when I qualified for Boston in 2010. Last week I emailed him my schedule in hopes we would meet up soon, and low and behold we were both in Missoula. It was so awesome to see him. He made my heart sing.                       I was solo on this trip, meaning no David L so it was really nice to be surrounded with all these marathon maniacs such as myself. I felt at home.                       We started off down a long road, with mountains on both sides and the smell of hay everywhere. It was a flat road so that was good. Since I had so little sleep I was a little fearful of getting injured. So I took it slow, even the 5-hour group passed me and I thought aaaah it’s ok, I will pass them later . But I didn’t. I had fun with the awesome race voulunteers and taking pictures.   There was a giant hill at mile 13-14 but I was feeling pretty good. I stopped to get a picture with the mile 14 sign and I was happy. Then mile 15 hit and my foot began yelling at me. There were photo ops all over the place but it was hard to smile because I was scared. So I listened to my foot and decided to walk. I walked a lot and that’s ok. I just need to make it to the next marathon.

Happy at mile 14 and marathon 14

    I wasn’t in pain, but I knew if I wanted to see another marathon, I better walk. The angels are telling me to take it easy. So I listened. Thank you angels. I had many medical people asking me if I was ok. They would say: “you look really fit, why are you walking? My reply: “ because this is marathon #14 in 13 weeks and I have 38 more to go. Thank you though, I am good, I got this!” It was a little frustrating having to walk almost ¼ of the race. I knew I was going to be out there almost an extra hour so I piled on the sunscreen and settled in for the ride, the long ride. My body thanked me. Because of the lack of sleep, I was essentialy running on empty. I am glad I took it easy. Hats off to the walkers, walking 26.2 is not easy. Heck I walked about 7 miles and felt many different muscles working. I called David to complain at mile 20, but that didn’t help. I think I could have talked to anyone, and it still wouldn’t help. I stopped at a medic tent to wrap up my foot just in case. That seemed to help a lot. I may benefit from an orthotic and some new shoes. My left foot seems a little frustrated, not to mention my mind. I started run/walking again at about mile 21. Ran into my friend Dave Mari at mile 25 and we were in to finish! We did it                       It was so awesome to have so many friends out there in such a random place as Missoula. Not to mention my new friend who I met coming over on the plane. This is Mark, he is fast. He finished 4^th place overall and he runs a billion marathons a year too. Impressive! Stay tuned for the next blog at The Light at the End of the Tunnel and see what Mark does.                     Instead of having 3 days to recover I had 6. Woo hoo! All week my doctor and I were concerned about the possibility of a stress fracture on my left foot. That is the only thing that would stop me. I don’t want to become a cripple when I am out here trying to save lives. Although the previous x-ray showed no signs of a fracture it was time for a CT scan. On Friday the 13^th of all days I had the scan done and we received 100% confirmation that it’s all clear and I am good to go. Thank you God! Though this journey may be crazy I get signs all the time that I am on the right path. Like I am being divinely guided by more then just map-quest. For instance I had 38 marathons to go and our airplane just happened to be going out of Gate 38. This may be a small sign, but a sign nonetheless. I ran marathon#14 for more than the joy that is running. I ran for my friend Becky. This marathon was dedicated to her father, Gary Hasse. This was his birthday weekend! He would have been 70 this weekend. He lost his battle 11/14/2010 just 10 weeks after diagnosis and 1 week after Becky took him to Purple Stride Puget. I was honored to run for him and am remembering his beautiful spirit that day. ♥ ♥ ♥ I ask for strength, guidance and support for each race, for this race the angels gave me strength to slow down and protect myself and that I did. Thank you angels for giving me the strength to let go of my ego and the clock, to guide me safely into the finish. I was writing this on the plane to Seattle for marathon #15 with a suitcase full of gratitude for the fact that I am able to continue on my 52 for You journey to make a difference in this severely underfunded, unfair and unacceptable disease. On behalf of my angels, my family, friends and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network…….WE GOT THIS!!!! Love, xoJulie

  Before I tell you about one of, if not, the most beautiful marathons in the world, The Kona Marathon. I will quickly tell you that I just successfully completed one of the hardest marathons in the world, the Leadville marathon. Here I am on top of the world: This was taken on the top of Mosquito Pass. Elevation 13,185 feet. Now I feel like I can do anything. In fact I think I just did. Before I go on I would like to mention that in my last blog I thought there was a 50/50 chance of a stress fracture. I am happy to report there is no stress fracture, I just tied my laces to tight and was to stuborn to stop and loosen them. Lesson learned. Number 11, the Kona marathon was like running in heaven. Here I am getting off of the plane and stepping into paradise.   Above…The first sign I see. Above. The second sign I see.. Gecko- Our welcoming committee We get our rental car and as if I needed another sign that I am on the right track here. Take a look at the license plate on our rental car. Now to some that may not mean much but the fact that it had a 262 on there blew me away. 262 (26.2 miles in a marathon) That was a sign from the universe. I am reminded of the quote: There are only two ways to live your life: One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle- Albert Einstein. I prefer the later. Hele on to the Sheraton resort bay in. The Kona Marathon was so welcoming and extremely generous. The room was provided by the Kona Marathon and the Sheraton, complete with swan towels, a basket of goodies and UCC Kona Coffee on the Lanai. The Kona marathon and Family Fun Runs put on an Aloha Friday fun run. I didn’t run it, I just walked around and met everyone ,indulged in an Orange Julius, which I haven’t had in years. There was great sponsorship. Subway, sushi, ice cream and lots of yummy treats. We had a nice evening till I put a yellow flower in my hair that was infested with bugs, and I had to rush home to the showers. Thanks David lol. Saturday David and I were scheduled to speak at the expo. David is a brilliant speaker. I have never spoken in front of a crowd before, so I was terrified. Even more terrifying then running 52 marathons in a year. David did fantastic as usual and I did pretty good for my first time. The crowd seemed touched and inspired by my story. Here are some pictures of the expo: The Kona marathon did a fundraiser for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network with a screening of the Spirit of the Marathon. We were supposed to watch a special screening of The Spirit of the Marathon 2 but they didn’t get it edited in time. But stay tuned. I know someone in that movie. Yours truly. That was so generous of them. Mahalo Kona Marathon You guys rock!! After the screening we had a beautiful carbo load dinner overlooking the ocean while we watched the sunset I did another speech at the dinner. I was much more relaxed. Except for I couldn’t get the pages of my speech to turn, but I worked it out and ended up doing great. Some people even told me they were in tears and even someone came up to me after the speech to share with me how they had recently lost someone to this ugly disease and with hugs and tears they made a donation right there on the spot. It was really very sad. But happy that I am up there taking a stand to end this madness. It’s time head back to the hotel and get ready for the marathon. I get out my shirt, my race bib, my socks and my shoes… but where are my shoes? I left my shoes out by the jacuzzi the night before and we went back out there to get them but they are gone. Not in lost and found, not in the car. Thankfully I had a back up pair that I had never worn before. Pearl Izumi was so nice to send me some running clothes and shoes so I thought I would bring them along for pictures. But I ended up wearing them in the race and they were fantastic. My left foot was happy too. Thank you Pearl Izumi, I couldn’t have done it with out you. Well I could have run barefoot but that may have hurt. Race morning had arrived, I was hanging out in the finish line area having coffee and chit chatting when I hear that the race had started. Oh my… I ran up to the starting line and I was off, pretty much last again, but that’s ok. What an unbelievable course along the Alii drive and onto Highway 11. I ran with a new friend Rodney for 16 miles and we took it nice and easy. The race support and staff were so friendly. It almost seemed like there was a water station at every mile filled with smiling faces and alohas! Coming in to the finish was nothing short of Amazing. I was greeted by David and his camera of course, David the awesome race director, hula girls and so much love. A friend I met in Kona after the marathon came up to me with tears in his eyes after the finish, because he too had lost his father to Pancreatic Cancer. I am in shock of how many people are affected by this horrific disease. It is so sad but I am glad I am out here making a difference. We went to Magic Beach and met some awesome friends: They knew me from the newspaper article that came out in West Hawaii Today that weekend. I also was named Hawaiian Energy Shotz July Face of the month. What a weekend. I am so grateful. Below are the links: http://www.hawaiianenergysports.com/journal/2012/7/1/july-2012-face-of-hawaiian-energy-shotz.html http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/sections/sports/local-sports/weiss-running-cause.html New friends Happy at Magic Beach 🙂 I dedicated this race to Amanda Steins Mother, Deborah Joan Spry. 1950-2007, so young, so beautiful and faught pancreatic cancer for 18 months. It’s heart breaking. I thank you all for your support and following me along on my journey. Please tell your friends and share with them what I am doing. I am doing all I can to make a difference. This severely underfunded disease has gone on for too long, taking the lives of so many amazing and beautiful people without even giving them a fighting chance. For Amanda’s mom and all those affected please help me make a difference. Stay tuned for part 2 when we go from Kona at sea level to Leadville at over 13,000 feet. Oh Boy! We Got this! xoJulie  

Here we are, on my way to number 9 already. I can’t believe it’s going so fast. I can’t believe I’m still standing?! Wasn’t it just yesterday I ran San Diego? It sure seemed like it. I can’t write about number 9 without at least a quick synopsis of number 8, Rock’nRoll San Diego Baby! We arrived into San Diego a little late due to over 30,000 people cramming into downtown SD for a marathon and not to mention the 20,000 people there for a Padres game as well. But it’s all good. I love the energy and the crowds. We had 30 minutes at the expo before it closed. I met Rudy from Compressport USA who outfits me in the cutest pink glittery compression sleeves you have ever seen. They have been great, keeping my calves happy and injury free. We also bumped into Rod Dixon at the expo. Rod is the winner of the 1983 New York Marathon, Olympian Bronze medalist and coach of the LA Roadrunners and LA Marathon. Got myself a cute picture with both Rudy and Rod. I am a lucky girl. Thank you to David for taking the picture and being so understanding. We met up for dinner at Nobu with my friends from my favorite running group who came to run with me, The G6! Yay G6!!! Also, a special new friend, Leighan, from Connecticut arrived to celebrate our awesomeness together. Leighan is a friend of Dino from Project Purple another great charity for Pancreatic Cancer. I ran the 1st of the 52 with Dino in Boston. We are all running to end pancreatic cancer. I missed her at the start line, but she finished her first marathon like the Rockstar that she is. We stayed at the Hard Rock hotel, so fun to have RocknRoll music playing as you enter your hotel room. Rock on! Alarm goes off at 4am, slept great and it’s time to run. Everything is laid out like clockwork I think I am finally getting the hang of this. We arrive at the starting line right on time. The energy I felt from our fellow 30,000 plus runners was out of this world. The gun goes off and we are off, singing, smiling and loving it. It was awesome to run with my G6 again. They were running the half marathon, so we ran together for 4 miles of fun. We were mid-song when the half marathon split came up so I actually ran an extra half-mile to finish our song. Miles 4-9 I struggled with my bib number. Yes, you heard that right, I struggled with my bib number. You see, I had this purple sparkly ribbon stapled to it and tied around my waste but it was falling down. Oh no, what is a marathon goddess to do? Safety Pins? Brilliant. I saw 2 LA Roadrunners ahead kicking but around mile 7 and I knew they had it together and they offered me a safety pin. I was saved. GO LARR! I felt fantastic until about mile 14, and then I realized I was running low on energy. It may have been the fact that I completely changed my diet last week. I went totally gluten free, vegan and I started eating all the foods I could that are best known for reducing inflammation. I was a walking Whole Foods. but a skinny one. I had lost 6 pounds in one week. That was too much and boy by mile 17, I was feeling it. As I learn more about nutrition such as: super foods, cancer killing foods, and a high anti-inflammatory diet I am sure to get stronger and healthier. I just needed to ease myself into it a bit more, hence the tired marathon goddess picture below. What marathon is this? Where am I? lol As I neared mile 20, I knew I wasn’t breaking 5 hours that day and that’s ok. My number one goal was to stay healthy so that I could run the next marathon and that I did. So since I wasn’t breaking any records, I decided to take advantage and stop for these awesome photo ops along the way. I couldn’t help myself. Coming into the finish was such a blur, but I remember seeing my best friend in the whole world, Tina. As I approached the finish line I heard her call out my name and I looked at her with such love in my heart and she captured it in this photo. It made my heart sing. Talk about making my heart sing, TEAM 52 was there in force at mile 10, 17 and at the finish. They were handing out post cards, support and so much love I can’t even describe. They are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts to help support me and reach my goal for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. When I offer them money, they won’t take it. They put on events, make flyers, t-shirts, they come to my races, they feed me, as I am typing my jaw just drops to the floor in awe and complete gratitude. They make donation boxes and set up tables in front of super markets. Have you ever heard of such a thing??? I mean really, this is love. Xoxox Here I am on the plane to Lake Placid flying solo this time. I really feel like it’s taking off (no pun intended, ok maybe a little). If I ever needed a sign, enter Ivy at American Airlines check in. I mentioned to her I would like a window seat, because I need sleep and that I am running a marathon tomorrow for Pancreatic Cancer. I handed her my card and she starts crying. Her husband has stage 4 lung cancer. Ivy has wanted to get into running. I start crying. Then I tell the flight attendant my story and wanted to get a message back to Ivy that I will run for her husband tomorrow and the flight attendant informs me of a gentleman on the plane going to see his brother Sam Brown, 43 with stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. I went to introduce myself to him. The whole plane is now crying. Tomorrow I run for Ivy’s husband and Sam Brown. I am still praying for a miracle. I will keep running, keep on believing and will fight until I drop. We are going all the way, you know why? Because we got this!!!   Number 9, Lake Placid NY.   Please donate today to help put an end to this stupid cancer that has taken the lives of so many beautiful people. Thank you for your support. http://netcommunity.pancan.org/52foryou

Here we are, Marathon number 6 already? We made it this far, and there is no stopping us now. Having no soreness from my marathon in Colorado last week, I was ready.I think my body has finally settled into the weekly pounding of 26.2 miles. However this is not the case for little 11 year old Denali Botolino. I just found out today is his birthday. He is fighting to hang on to his life, battleing Pancreatic Cancer. Denali, my heart is with you and we are sending you so much love today. I hope you can hang on. This run was for you xo           In every marathon, we as runners fight to hang on, whether it’s to a PR or just to finish. When you set your heart on something, you can do anything. Sunday I did just that! I completed marathon #6 on another hot day, about 80 degrees with hills to boot! I was grateful to have been welcomed by the Pasadena Marathon so graciously . The day started off in style,VIP access and all. The announcer shouts out Marathon Goddess, where are you? OMG me? Yes You! I was asleep on the couch. But I got up and it was time to go!   I ran with my friend Alex from the group that I pace lead, (The LA Roadrunners “G6”). He pace lead me on Sunday. It was awesome. We ran together to Mile 8. We had a blast. It was so good to be running with him again, even if he did forget to train since March (sorry Alex). It was a blessing in disguise though because we walked , we ran, we sang and had fun. Thank you Alex, you saved my race! It was a slow first half, but perfect thanks to Alex, it kept me injury free and I had tons of energy left for a faster second half. Yay!   I saw a lot of friends on the course. I even did an interview with the Marathon Show and Steve Mackel( head coach of the Sole Runners). Two interviews, one marathon, very efficient if you ask me. The more awareness we can spread the better. That is half the battle. I ran into Marathon Mitch, or shall I say he ran into me. Such a great guy. He was running his 100th Marathon that day. I was honored to cheer him on. I also had the pleasure of meeting up with the beautiful Yolanda Holder. She is known as the “Walking Diva” Guinness World Record holder of most marathons in a year by a woman. I think she completed 106 in one year, Wow! I only hope to do half of what she has done. What an inspiration!   I ran the second half 18 minutes faster than the first. Talk about a negative split. My Mom, David and Alex were at was at the finish line. It was my Mom’s first time coming out to the finish line. She was so proud she almost cried. We are not finished yet, oh no, not even close. It’s time for Zumba. Yes, you read that right. An amazing group of friends got together to put on a special Zumba class to raise money for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. They are known as TEAM 52.They worked night and day for weeks, putting together this event together. Banners, flyers, DJ, food, T-shirts, venue, flowers and more. They got together with their hearts, their friends, family and so much LOVE words can not describe. We raised over $1,000 this weekend. Amazing! I ran, I danced, yes I did join in the Zumba after the marathon. May not have been the brightest idea as the tops of my feet were really hurting the next day. But I had fun and after a few days rest and recovery, I am almost ready for Number 7 : Coeur d’Alene, Idaho here we come   We Got this!!! xoxo

      Well it didn’t quite start in God’s country infact it was quite the opposite. I got off work at 4, pack and I’m ready to go, but where’s David? Our plane leaves at 6:15, it is now 5:00 on Friday in rush hour and still no David. I was practically in tears, already looking for another flight or another marathon, but nothing is available. Uh oh, what are we going to do now? We miraculously made our flight with not one minute to spare. They almost didn’t let us on the plane. Thank you God and thank you United! We fly into Denver, of course our plane was delayed so we had to sprint to our connecting flight to Grand Junction, Colorado. Good thing we are runners. We get to the plane and realize David left his cell phone and keys at the TSA security check point. Go David! The plane waits and we are off. We made it in at midnight and need to get up at 4:45, this is my life?! WOW. Well at least I had 4 hours of sleep this time, better than last weekend. So I am thinking the race starts at 7, so we have a nice leisurely breakfast, get to the starting line and realize the marathon started at 6:30. I took a deep breath and thankfully the kind race director says I can still run, so off I go without a bib number. I am all alone somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but it was beautiful and I had my road ID in case I took a wrong turn so I was good to go. I was running along the Colorado River. Even though I was all alone, the race course was well marked and I knew which way to turn. I am at a mile 2 and I see some guy running in the wrong direction towards me. Oh, it’s David. Aww he has my bib number for me and he even brought me safety pins. Yeah!! Thank you David. Bib #1000, I like it. There were less than 50 people in the marathon, 350 total in the 5k, 10K, half marathon and full. This marathon did not have timing chips. Too bad I didn’t start on time, I may have won my age group, not for my time, but because I was the only one in it. A big giant hill greets me at mile 4 and with my stomach acting up, the thin air and the fact that I had 22 miles and 47 marathons to go I decided to walk the hill. I finally caught up with a nice lady named Ingrid. She was awesome, probably about mid 60’s and run/walking the marathon and doing an ultra next weekend. She rocks. She told me to go ahead so I did and “Yay” I wasn’t last anymore, not that it matters but Thank you Ingrid! So I am running along in God’s Country amazing views, finally running free and happy. Then I see the signs: Winery this way….> Marathon…> that way. Why? Decisions decisions. That was such a tease. I continued on and passed a few more people, turn around at 13.1 and head back. I finished over 5 hours today, but I didn’t care. I dedicated this race to a friend of a friend who lost his battle to Pancreatic Cancer last week. It was all about Spirit. After I finished, we ran right into the Colorado River. Me and David sat on a rock and he told his story about the Grand Canyon, it was a long story and we sat in the river for over 40 minutes. My body thanked me for that. We didn’t have time for the wineries, but while waiting for our taxi we met Skip. Skip is about 67 years old with a straw hat on his head and straggly beard but some serious runner legs. Very athletic looking. Come to find out this is Skip Hamilton, a legend. He won Leadville 100 in the 80’s , not once but four times. He told us war stories of him and Prefontane, Frank Shorter and test shoes from Bill Bowerman. His title was passed to a Tarahumara runner and Skip couldn’t have been more pleased to pass it on to him. It’s time to go home. Grand Junction Airport is like night and day compared to rush hour traffic at LAX. It was the most laid back airport I had ever seen. David and I stretched on the floor in the carpeted lobby with funny looks from people but we didn’t’ care. We arrive into Phoenix, have dinner, play on facebook and take off for L.A. Touch down in Los Angeles at 10pm Saturday night. We are home, we pick up Jessie (my dog) and life is good. I am turning off all alarm clocks. What a gift. That was the most intense 24 hours ever. Wait did that really just happen? I think it did, I have the medal to show for it, new friends and have now made a decision to dedicate each marathon to someone who has been affected by Pancreatic Cancer. If you know someone, let me know. I will run for them. I will run for you.

Here is an awesome 5K my friend is putting on for a cause close to my heart. J’s Run 5k – Run/Walk in Bethlehem, PA on Saturday, May 12, 2012. J’s Run is a fundraiser in memory of two women, Joan Stein and Jennifer Reeves who both lost their lives to pancreatic cancer, the same awful disease that took the life of my number one fan, my father. There is no early detection for Pancreatic Cancer, limited treatment and still no cure. The race is May 12^th so there is still time to train, even if you have never run a 5k and have little or no training. Follow these easy steps and in just 5 weeks you will find yourself finishing a 5k and having fun: -Start by walking, and add a little run every so often as it becomes enjoyable, then increase the length of the run. -Do this workout for about 30 minutes every other day and you will accomplish two things: 1 increase health and fitness and 2 you will finish a 5K! Awesome! Sign up for J’s Run through Active.com the price is just $25.00 until May 8th then it goes up to $30. Have an Amazing run! www.jsrun.org http://www.active.com/running/bethlehem-pa/js-run-5k—run-walk-2012