Big Weekend

My last marathon was in January of 2004 and it was a disaster. I ran in the inaugural Arizona Rock n Roll Marathon and I did not finish the race. I had run two other marathons prior to this marathon and finished them both. I actually better my time by 38 minutes from the first to the second marathon and was feeling pretty good about the third marathon. I had noticed on my long runs leading up to this third marathon I would get a nagging pain in the side of my left knee. I thought I could just run through it; again another bad decision on my part. At mile 15 I met up with my wife and children to exchange water bottles and get some good wishes and had stopped running as we did the exchange. This proved to be a fatal mistake because when I was finished exchanging the water bottles I could not get restarted running. The pain in my knee was excruciating and I thought better to pull out of the race after trying to get to mile 16.

A few months later and many visits to an orthopedic along with an MRI I had tendonitis in my knee. It took about four months to fully recover from this injury and I took my rehabilitation very seriously because I had to run again to prove to myself I can finish another marathon. At the beginning of this year I had loft running goals which were to run in three marathons; March Los Angeles, June San Diego, and November New York. Well most of us know what happened four days prior to the first scheduled marathon in March. I was fortunate enough to run in the La Jolla Half Marathon in April but again I injured myself leading up to the San Diego marathon in June. It took a few months to recover from the calf injury but I couldn't run in the New York marathon because I needed one more week of training.

Which leads me to this weekend. I am running in (of all places!) the Las Vegas Marathon on Sunday morning. Las Vegas has had a marathon for the past 25 years but this year they have finally changed the course and moved the marathon to December; it was previously run in late January and the course was not very exciting. This year the marathon starts and ends at Mandalay Bay and goes down the strip towards downtown through the Fremont Street Experience and loops around before finishing at Mandalay Bay. I needed to run a marathon before the year is out and Sunday is my last chance.

Some may say Las Vegas is a very peculiar place to chose to run a marathon for a compulsive gambler and you may be right. My family will be with me and like I have said before I am committed to my recovery one day at a time and I am happy to go back to a place where both of my children were born. Las Vegas for all its bad has a warm place in my heart because two blessing from God were bestowed upon me while I resided in this city. My children are fabulous and I will always think of warmly of Las Vegas because who knows had my wife NOT moved to Las Vegas who is to say my children may not have been born and it would have been my loss.

Tomorrow morning we drive off to Las Vegas where I will see a dear friend for the first time in a very long time. This friend has had their share of ups in downs in the past nine months but has always had time for me; calling whenever they had a free moment to see how I was doing. It is hard to believe it has been 10 years since I first met this person and I am so glad they are a part of my life. Relationships, honesty, God, family are truly what matters to me. The worldly possessions can be gone but as long as I have those four things in my life everything will be work out; it already has.

Needless; to say I will not be posting tomorrow but I will be back on Sunday night to recap the weekend. The marathon starts at 6:00 am Pacific Time and believe it or not it will be 32 degrees in Las Vegas at that time. By the time I finish the temperature should be in the 50's. I am a bit apprehensive about the start time because not only will it be cold but the sun doesn't rise until 6:40 am; it should be interesting. There are some people I know from town that are running as well and we plan to run together as long as we can. I am looking forward to the marathon and being back in a place that holds very special memories for me.

One last item; I received a letter today from a remarkable person. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people. Had it not been for my current situation I would not have met this person and it would have been my loss. This is a special person with a gift and I thank them for this letter it means the world to me.